The Paradox of the Cross

          If I may ask you a question, " How would you perceive the image of the cross? Is it a sign of victory or a defeat? Is it a sign of hope or a sign of failure?" These are but some of the questions we can raise in our mind in relation to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ when He offered Himself to die on the cross. 

         Personally I would say that we should always be grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ for His preparedness to sacrifice His own life to merit our salvation. With this in mind and in heart, I unceasingly put my prayer that may our minds be enlightened by the power of the Holy Spirit, the source of truth so that any decision that we will make especially those which will affect others could be honest and sincere.

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If we can live by the principles of truth then we will be able to contribute to the peace and harmony in our society no matter where we are in. 

         Consequently the image of the cross is a paradox of what it meant to be for others. The cross where Jesus Christ died becomes a complete manifestation of His triumph over our wickedness and sinfulness. When humanity suffers insults and rejection because of the desire to follow Jesus Christ, the image of Mary comes out as a spiritual mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who while witnessing the humiliation of her son, pleaded to God the Father for the forgiveness of His executioners and also for our own conversion. 

         As a result, the cross at this time becomes a symbol of good being triumphant over evil. May we then continue to imitate all these examples in our life in spite of all the odds out there, witnessing and believing in the concrete sacrificial act done by our Lord Jesus Christ this day. 

                                            

Get Rid of Negativity

          January 2019 has started and maybe it is good to look at how the first few days of this month and of this year has gone undetected.  Perhaps we already encountered several incidents in the workplace, or at home, or in the streets and others that brought worries to us. That when faced with a challenging situation, we resulted to negativity and such attitude also affecting our dealings with the other members of our household. 

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          Moreover, instead of leaving behind in our workplaces or office desks/ corners the worries of our responsibilities at work, we decided to bring them at home therefore, they also stressed out those people living with us. Confronted by them, we tend to panic right away and overthink about what will happen in the future without enjoying the now moment. There is a call for us to change this perspective and as a matter of fact, we need to constantly remember that what counts most for us is our immediate time with our loved ones especially with our spouses and kids.

         We need to spend time everyday to sit back and relax then  forget about those stresses and channel our energy to improving our relationship with our spouses and children for they are the very first priority (should be!) that we have in our life. They are the reasons why we positively wake up everyday to go to work or else perform other day's tasks. Let us learn to embrace all negative elements, situations, conditions, emotions as part of us and just allow them to have their own moments. Finally, let us be friendly with them and on the other hand, we endeavour also to make each moment a positive avenue of expressing love and affection to our loved ones as well as to others. 

                                         

Moving Forward to 2019

          Soon 2018 will be a part of our history and we welcome a new year 2019. For sure, 2018 has been a colourful year for all of us- yin and yang, white and black, light and dark etc- those are constantly the contrasting reality of all our events this year.

          However whatever may be our moments for this year, we should learn how to move on from those negative memories that we had and be grateful for the positive things that we experienced.

Photo by mckenzie toyne on Unsplash

          Moving forward could be challenging for some most notably if it involves a lot of pain but for us to grow physically, morally, psychologically and spiritually, we ought to embrace both positive and negative events.

          And as we start the new year tomorrow, may we spend this day with the special people in our life -wife,husband, kids- instead of spending this day with other people who are less relevant to us. In spite of the quick evolution of our life today brought along by today's technologies, there still present the basic and essential reality that our family comes first and our top priority among all other things. 

          Thus we welcome the new year 2019 with full enthusiasm and optimism that life will be better for us and for our loved ones.