Church calls for moral renewal
Restos, hotels offer ‘Lenten packages,’ treats
Bunnies, yes, rabbit-uniformed crew of a janitorial service company have been reporting for work in the city’s malls with said new get-up. It is the company’s way of celebrating the Lenten Season with the cleaning bunnies symbolic not of Christ’s sufferings but of Easter Sunday.
Not to be left behind, for weeks now hotels and restaurants have re-designed its marketing stint. Even Iloilo’s growing wellness industry too. The specials, “real deals” and packages are all laden with the supposed Lenten spirit. Fish-based dishes on the menu and discounted stay in various city hotels. “Renewed spirit” through therapeutic massages and facial and body spas too. The choices are wide and varied yet all passed on in the spirit of Lent.
Meantime, Parishes under the Archdiocese of Jaro are most busy with preparations for the week’s Lenten activities. Father Romulo Pana thought of involving the locals in MH Del Pilar Jaro with the re-enactment of the Last Supper here. A first for the Parish yet Father Pana had no difficulty getting volunteer-Apostles. Saturday saw an afternoon with the “Apostles” for a crash course on their roles and speaking parts. Father Pana personally did the research and gave each “Apostle” a hand-out. Prayer centers established here will be the stage of the first-ever “Last Supper” event in MH Del Pilar.
Meantime, Sunday saw thousands of the Catholic faithful in various Churches for the Palm Sunday mass and procession. A busy week for priests amidst the Lenten message of Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo calling for “moral renewal.”
“Lent is an opportune occasion for profound re-examination of life, for confronting ourselves with the truth of the Gospel, which demands radical moral renewal. Jesus Christ begins his public ministry with the message: “The time of fulfillment has come… Repent (i.e. change your mind and behavior), and believe in the Gospel!” (Mk. 1/15). St. Paul the Apostle gives his rejoinder: “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4/23),” the Archbishop in his message began. “Along this line, the scientist, Albert Einstein, offered a formula for solving the problems and crises that churches, institutions and governments are facing when he said: “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created these problems and crises.” We will not solve our problems – religious, social, economic, political – by insisting on doing the same things that have produced the problems. The call of Lent is for moral renewal. To achieve this we need at least a critical mass of citizens-leaders who are willing to “break out of the box,” to jump on to the beginning of a new wave, to move into a new cycle of development, to operate with a new social consciousness and conscience, not for their individual or group security, but for the good of the greatest number.”
The moral crisis faced by the nation, the Archbishop continued, has “most seriously” affected the poor and marginalized.
“..oftentimes treated like commodities, “ Archbishop Lagdameo lamented.
“Graft and corruption breed widespread poverty. Widespread poverty in turn breeds graft and corruption. There is a concatenation of crisis and corruption that goes down to the barangay level, up and down and up, infecting the whole society, like a contagious cancer,” he continued. “To cure this social cancer we need a new breed of leaders in our country. The forthcoming national elections must not simply be a changing of hats for the same persons, or change of faces but with unchanged hearts. We must be able to gather a critical mass of citizens-leaders with a genuine passion and obsession for good governance and prophetic leadership. This critical mass will be the training ground of other citizens who will lead our country with the values of honesty and justice, truth and integrity, credibility and accountability, transparency and stewardship. These are the moral values that citizens must use to criticize and measure the present brand of leaders and raise up a new breed of leaders.”