ANYTIME this week the monstrous traffic on EDSA will simply stand still for about three hours or so, probably stretching from Gil Puyat in Makati to Kamuning in Quezon City. The anticipated carmageddon will be upon us. Major thoroughfares will be tied up in endless gridlocks. As usual, sales of cars and SUVs have gone up by about 20 percent on the last quarter of the year and the MMDA says that’s about 20,000 new private vehicles in Metro Manila alone. The Christmas shopping rush and the countless public and private Christmas events and parties are now the crucial ingredients for this unparalleled disaster to come to pass.
President Duterte cannot use the same formula he applied on the owners of Manila Water and Maynilad whom he viciously dressed down before they relented from collecting their huge money claims from the government to the country’s car manufacturers and dealers. Or can he? All President Duterte has to do is lambast the chairmen and CEOs of these corporations, as well as threaten to slap or shoot them dead for them to moderate their huge production greed.
As we know, about 25% of each vehicle sold goes to the government basically as tax. Next, he will subject the heads of the DTI, the Board of Investments, the Bureau of Customs and, the Department of Finance to the same ordeal for them to moderate their greed.
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The spiritual aspect of Christ’s birth is lost sadly on the poor who remain in the dark on the tested Christian principle of better to give than to receive. Their condition in life has compelled them to just receive and even to demand provisions. Many rich people find their wealth rising due to their generosity and regular assistance to the poor. One of them was the late retail magnate and philanthropist John Gokonwei, Jr. The similarly trail-blazing chairman and president of San Miguel Corp., Ramon Ang, is also known for his abundant socio-economic programs for the poor and unemployed.
The prominent Christian evangelist Kenneth Hagin teaches that “the curse of the law which is the penalty for breaking God’s law, includes spiritual death, sickness, disease, and poverty. Hagin was the leading advocate of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, as well as Biblical prosperity, in this century, which he stressed to be God’s plan for Christian believers. Many Catholics and Born-Again Christians “understand that in Christ, they’ve been redeemed from spiritual death and sickness and disease. But, they don’t realize that they’ve been redeemed from poverty.”
Countless poor people no longer go to Church and in their misery God has become a distant and indifferent Being. But believers should embrace the command of Jesus who was anointed by the Holy Spirit “to preach the Gospel to the poor, .”. and should do likewise, instead of being content in warming their seats during Sunday services. Hagin points to Galatians 3:13,14: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us… That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.”
The first part of Deuteonomy 28 is about the blessings (full supply of spiritual and material needs) for keeping God’ law. Deuteronomy 28 :1-2 says “And it shall come to pass, if thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments… that the Lord thy God will set thee high above all nations..And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”
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Cat Tan, a spiritual counselor, tells the story of Jane, a daughter of an abusive mother.
Once, Jane was practically thrown out of their house. When she got pregnant by her boyfriend her mother forced her to abort the baby. Gnawing unforgiveness ruled her life and her deep loathing for her mother affected Jane’s relationships with her loved ones and her friends. She sought counseling from Cat of the Ministry of Healing and Deliverance of the Christ’s Commission Fellowship (CCF) headed by evangelist Benjie Magsino. She could not bring herself to forgive her mother even if the latter had been in jail in Iloilo City for three years because of drug pushing. Her counselor patiently advised her from the Bible, prayed for her deeply and guided her through the process of delivering herself from the demonic bondage of pain, bitterness and unforgiveness.
As she wept uncontrollably for about 30 minutes, Cat says the heavy burden suddenly lifted and Jane found herself finally forgiving her mother. At that moment while her tears had flooded the darkness inside her with Christ’s “living water” the jail warden was receiving her mother’s release papers. She was set free on that same day, and indeed it could only be God at work.
