Today

Today is the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord.  It is the feast of God the Son’s first manifestation to all men represented by the Wise men from the East who found Him after a long search and an arduous journey. 

Today, more than ever, I wish God would also manifest Himself to me and bring me out of darkness into the light, answer my questions and give me hope for the future like He did to Jeremiah.  “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope and a future.”  (Jer 29,11)

Today is also the end of the Christmas season, a season of bright and colorful lights, of parties and giving of gifts, of reunions and family bonding.  I completed the nine days of “Simbang Gabi” and attended Midnight Mass, wrote our annual family Christmas newsletter and counted our blessings, celebrated our wedding anniversary and thanked God for the 31 happy married years, joined the annual reunion of the Alvarezes and Mendiolas, and sat at our family “Noche Buena”.  But that was it for me as a dark pall of gloom continued to hang over my head… And  come to think of it, that probably explains why I have not written a single post for this blog during the month of December.

Today, I read the column of Patricia Evangelista in the Opinion page of the Inquirer entitled, “We, the living”, and I wept… The whole article depressed me more as she wrote of what 2009 had been.  The devastating typhoons and their raging floods, the fiery Mayon volcano, the killer road and sea accidents, the breakdown of law and order, the miscarriages of justice, the corruption in government and overacting politicians, and finally the massacre of the innocents in Maguindanao… I then realized that this is what has been with me after all.  And I have been affected because it is true that “what is most universal is also most personal”.

Today is the third day of the year 2010, the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord, the feast of the first manifestation of the Son of God in human form.  He comes as Light in the darkness of our lives, as Hope amidst pain and suffering around us. 

Today I pray that I may be able to recognize Him when He comes to manifest himself to me, maybe in the stranger at the gate or in the face of a street kid, within the pages of a book that I am reading or in the pages of the Holy Bible.  And like the Wise men, I must continue searching diligently.

Today, I am hopeful.