do you believe this?

 

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

 

The most widely held belief today is that the advances in science, medicine, and genetics, might be able to prolong life. The quest for the so called fountain of life where there would no longer be death is never ending. Yet God’s Word definitely declares that it is appointed unto man once to die,  and after this the judgment.(Hebrew 9:27)

Death came into this world because of sin. And this is not speaking only of physical death, but spiritual death as well. Man is already dead spiritually, before he died physically. It may be possible to prolong life but will it be  worth living? Increased   life span is of little value unless it is worth living. St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, did not see prolonging life as a major objective. Indeed as servant and follower of Christ, he regarded death as something of even greater worth.

Let me quote this great Apostle, he said, “For to me living means living for Christ and dying is even better.” (Philippians 1:21)

To this man of God Christ had made his life profoundly worth living, and dying in Christ is even better because nothing can ever separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. For St. Paul those who live for Christ have eternal life. St. Paul’s purpose in life is in sharp contrast with what drives so many people today. Some are driven by the desire for money, worldly possessions, and the apparent security they bring.  Others are driven by the desire to be famous, to have power, others are driven by the quest for significance and success. But for St. Paul, he said, for me to live is Christ.

The question my dear friends is what is it in Jesus Christ which St. Paul and all the Christians after him, that compelled them to affirm with great conviction their faith and belief in Him?

As a Christian allow me to speak the very Words which the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of John 11^th Chapter. In this passage Christ declared in no uncertain terms that He is the Giver of Eternal Life, and let me quote verse 25, He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me though he dies, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

So we see Jesus' power over death.  I think this to be an essential message dealing with a critical theme.  We're living in a dying world where all of us face the inevitability of death.  We are deteriorating humans in a deteriorating world.  Our world is marked by tragedy.  Our world is marked by sorrow.  Our world is marked by sadness.  Our world is marked by death and dying.  Since the Fall of man is recorded in Genesis, chapter 3, there has been a curse on the earth.  And that curse has sent the earth and all of its inhabitants careening and spiraling into tears and disasters and pain and sickness and death.  In fact, we face these things incessantly.

Can Jesus overcome death?  What a message that is.  G. B. Hardy, the Canadian scientist, one time said, "When I looked at religion, I said I have two questions.  Question No. 1:  Has anybody ever conquered death?  Question No. 2: If they did, did they make a way for me to conquer, too?"  He said, "I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied; and I checked the tomb of Confucius, and it was occupied; and I checked the tomb of Mohammed, and it was occupied; and I came to the tomb of Jesus, and it was [What?] empty.  And I said, 'There is One who conquered death.'  And I asked the second question, 'Did He make a way for me to do it?'  And I opened the Bible, and He said, 'Because I live [What?], ye shall live also.'"  That's the question:  "Jesus, can You conquer death?  Are You the One who can reverse the curse?  Do You, as it says in Revelation 1, hold in Your hand the keys of death and hell?  If You are that One, show us, demonstrate it." The same Jesus who stood at the grave of Lazarus and groaned, who wept with Mary, was the same Jesus who said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?"

The question to us this evening is Do you believe this? (Settle this issue between you and the Lord while you still can). We are bringing this message of hope, this message of God’s love, this Good News for no other consideration but of the compelling love of Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Death is a dreadful thing if one does not have Jesus Christ in his life. The Bible describes death as an enemy.  What is amazing is that this enemy cannot bite God’s people. 1 Corinthians 15:55-557, “O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Let me end by going back to the great Apostle St. Paul who speaks to us this evening, and let me quote the inspiring words  he said in his Epistle to the Romans the 8^th chapter, he said in verses 31-39,”Who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ died for us and was raised to life for us… Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or destitute or in danger or threatened with death? No despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow- not even the powers of hell can separate s from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed nothing in all creation will ever able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen.

 

 

AN EULOGY: DR. ERNESTO P. ADORIO, PH.D.,

Dr. Ernesto P. Adorio, Professor, University of the Philippines, NOHS CLASS OF 1972.  

AN EULOGY

By Judge Ray Alan T. Drilon

I cannot help but do a lot of reflection, after the unexpected departure from this earthly life, of Professor Ernesto Adorio, a classmate in the elementary and high school, childhood friend and playmate, with whom almost a year ago, I shared happy moments together talking about life, planning about retirement, thinking of projects and looking forward to the next school reunion which he never missed to attend. Ernesto was most happy when he saw his classmates. He made it as a personal pilgrimage to go home to be with his dear classmates and friends. He was a generous contributor to the alumni home coming activities. He loved to be with the class of NOHS 1972, of which he was a proud member. He loved to take photos of the event, would be jubilant to pose and to be photographed, smiling and beaming like a child. 

Ernesto was not the stereotype image of a University Professor. I would always remember him wearing casuals, cargo jacket, base ball cap, with bulky camera dangling from his neck. He looked more like a local tourist on a budget, or rugged reporter. He didn’t look like a stiff academic, of which he was, and a brilliant one.

We always talked about about many things, family, classmates, politics, life. We reminisce the days of our youth, of the transition we went through in our lives. Ernesto would talk sadly of schoolmates who had gone ahead, musing about the unpredictability of events in one’s life. With his mathematical mind it was as if he wanted to draw up an equation to divine the uncertainties.

This man is a deep and prodigious thinker yet, he kept whatever serious thoughts he had, hidden, beneath the surface of an easy going, happy personality. There is the artistic side to him, and compelling scientific curiousity driving him to take and collect pictures of people, places, nature, plants, flowers and birds. He introduced me to the hobby of photography. He collected and documented photos of indigenous plants, flowers, and insects. He created a Social Networking Group on Facebook known as the Philippine Handbook of Plants and Flowers,  a valuable reference to Botanists and students, documenting their finds.

I think his passion for nature was what kept him in balance. I suppose his teaching higher mathematics was exacting to the heart, too clinical, even impersonal, because it demands no less than perfection or accuracy.

There was also the spiritual side of Ernesto perhaps not known to many of his friends. As a man of science he did not wrestle with unbelief. He believed in God. One time he wrote me asking for an explanation of a difficult passage of our Lord’s Sayings. 

Our last time together was last year when we took coffee with classmate Rosula. It returned to me now, how our conversation drifted to questions of classmates and friends whom we had not seen for so long, who were ailing and who had gone ahead, followed by carefree  jesting how much longer we would last in our aging bodies as we enter the threshold of seniority. Ernesto would be the first to advise that we should take care of our health.  

We broke up, that afternoon with smiles in our faces, bidding goodbye, promising to meet again. It was to be our last.

This year February the 29^th, I was busy hearing my cases and my phone kept on ringing. I ignored it. After winding up the business that morning I opened the phone and saw it was Professor Hermie Siroy, of the USLS, a classmate, who had been calling. I returned his call. He gave the news. Ernesto had left us. In his sleep.

I could hardly describe the intensity  of this terrible news, terrible in the sense that it was utterly unexpected, jarring the nerves.  

Scottish author and Christian Minister George Macdonald aptly describes this feeling: 

“Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky, and sometimes into the midst of a peaceful family-without warning of gathered storm above or slightest tremble of earthquake beneath-will fall a terrible fact and from that moment everything is changed. The air is thick with clouds and cannot weep itself clear.” 

Death is a dreadful enemy, and we mortals are terrified of it. I looked up to the heavens and thank God for the life of Ernesto, Doc Ernie to his colleagues in the academic community,  who had touched our lives. I had this nagging feeling that humans are connected to each other in a mystical way that one could feel the pain of the disconnection when another passes away.  

But God is merciful.  He has given us hope, because  death, will  not have the final say.  

As I wrestle with the question why, the cloud of shock, and the darkness of sorrow progressively dissipated by the illumination of God’s word. No question that the initial shock was like a sting, that leaves you reeling. The good news, however, is that death is only a shadow.

One thing which always gives me comfort as I reflect upon life and death on this earth, are the powerful words of St. Paul in his Letters to the Corinthian Christians. 

He said:

 “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”(1Corinthians 15:51-57)

Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. 

Prof good night, see you in the morning.

MEETING AN OLD BUDDY

MEETING AN OLD BUDDY

Yesterday I met up with an old high school buddy now a Math Professor at the University of the Philippines.

He often spends summer in our hometown and attends  the school reunion,  without fail, every year. I asked if we could talk again, as we often do, whenever he’s home.

He was in casuals,  baseball cap, with bulky camera dangling from the neck. He looked like a local tourist or a rugged reporter . He didn’t look like the typical academic, which he is, and a brilliant one.

We  talked about many  things, classmates, family, politics,  and about life. We reminisce  the days of our youth, of the transitions we went through in the stages of life.

He talked sadly of friends and schoolmates who had returned to the ground, and the unpredictability of events in one’s life. With his mathematical mind it was as if he wanted to draw up an equation  to divine the uncertainties. 

This man is a deep,  prodigious thinker, and yet there is the artistic side  to  him. I glanced at the camera slung around his neck. He said he is interested in birds and different species of native plants and flowers.  He said he recently climbed a mountain somewhere in Luzon seeking out rare species,  and documenting his finds.

I think his passion for  nature is what keeps him in balance. I suppose for him teaching higher math is exacting to the heart, much too clinical, even impersonal, because it requires no less than  utter perfection.  

Alas, all of man’s striving  falls short of perfection.   

And this reminds of me what St. Paul declared to the Christians in Rome. He said we all come short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23). 

This makes us human after all.