Believing, hoping, sharing

Faith, hope and charity
Ka Iking Señeres

In search of a title for my new column, I decided to choose a name that would best reflect my advocacy for nation building. You might not see the connection right away, but as I see it, faith, hope and charity are the three virtues that we actually need in order to build this nation on one hand, and to move it forward on the other hand, not just to survive, but to regain our leadership and dominance in this part of the world.

As others would see it, we should actually aim for nation rebuilding instead of nation building, but that is a friendly debate that I would join anytime.

In Pilipino, faith, hope and charity could be roughly translated into “pag-titiwala, pag-asa at pag-mamahal”.

The translation of charity into “love” is done with some poetic license, but “love” is actually the bottom line of charity. More often than not, charity is interpreted as the giving of alms or the sharing of blessings, but it is actually “love” that powers and motivates the giving and the sharing. From another perspective, sharing is actually another form of tithing, in other words, it is giving to others in need, aside from giving to a church based organization.

Religion is divisive, spirituality is not. We could find spirituality in religion, but one does not really need religion in order to find spirituality. All told, it is best however to have religion, in order to find spirituality better and deeper. It is spirituality that gives us faith. No matter what our religion is, it is our spirituality that gives us faith in God, the God of everyone, the God of all religions. Without faith in God, there is no purpose for our lives. Without faith in our country, we have nothing to look forward to up ahead in the future.

It is faith in God that gives us hope. We could hope in others, but that is the kind of hope that has no foundation, no meaning. With faith in God, we could hope that our country could still have a good future. While it is true that we could make our country grow and prosper with our own labor, it is God that gives us the hope that we could have the growth and the prosperity that we long for. Grace comes from God even if we do not work for it, or even if we do not deserve it. That is the nature of grace.

Do not ever believe that you could pressure God or blackmail God into giving you grace by simply working for it. Just work as if everything depended on your labor, and pray as if everything depended on God.

Charity is not obligatory, but those who have faith in God should see it as an opportunity to reach out to God here on earth, within our own material realm. What does charity have to do with nation building? Strictly speaking, charity has nothing to do with the official duties of the government to deliver basic services to our people. Even if the delivery is a duty however, it could still be seen as an opportunity to share the wealth of the government with those in need. Given the fact that governance is not the exclusive domain of the government however, everyone is welcome to share their blessings.

Speaking of blessings, I have been blessed with the opportunity of having a key role in the reorganization of Sagip Bansa, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to nation building. It was founded by the late patriot and ideolouge Dr. Ernesto G. Ramos. We hope to be able to continue with his advocacy and legacy in the renewed organization.

The objectives of Sagip Bansa blends very well with those of Corinthian Coffee Clutch (C3), a think tank that is also dedicated to nation building. Same goes with Our Barangay, Inc. (OBI), an NGO that is also dedicated to nation building, with the specific goal of connecting all barangay units to the internet.

Kodus to Maj. Gen. Carlos B. Holganza of the National Development Support Command (NADESCOM) for helping the Foundation of Our Lady of Peace Mission, Inc. (FOLPMI) in the release of a shipment of donated medical goods from Schenker International. Kudos also to Capt. Jerry Arrizabal of the Davao Customs Police for facilitating the release.

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