I hold a belief that many people find uncomfortable: our country’s technological backwardness, so often the subject of derision, has quietly kept millions employed in our midst. We are living in a world where technology is hurtling us towards a future where machines are our only companions, and our backwardness has been a stubborn, life-sustaining brake on that progress.

I am not romanticizing poverty and inefficiency here, nor am I unaware of the frustration that comes with slow systems, long lines, and work being done by hand instead of by machine, no matter how much faster the machine is. But I am also not unaware of the fact staring me in the face: it is because we have not fully put our factories, our offices, and our streets under the control of machines that people are still able to make a living by the sweat of their brows, however honest that living may be. Our backwardness, in this sense, has been an accidental safety net for our society.

In very advanced countries, machines have long since gobbled up jobs that used to sustain communities, jobs that used to be the bread and butter of many families. The factories are humming with robots that don’t need sleep, complain, or ask for pay. The offices that used to be bustling with clerks, bookkeepers, and assistants are now silent, their jobs taken over by software and programs, all in the name of efficiency and profit, and many workers made to get out and “retool” or “reskill” as if it were as simple as downloading an app on their smartphones.

But here we are different. Our manufacturing plants still require human hands; our offices still require people to file, encode, check, and double-check. Our streets are filled with vendors, drivers, porters, and messengers—jobs that would have been made redundant in hyper-automated economies. This is not to say that we have excelled in the use of technology; it is to say that we have found ways to employ people in imperfect ways that still keep hunger at bay.

There is dignity in work, even if it is menial and repetitive, even if it is physically exhausting or technologically unsophisticated. A job, no matter how menial, gives purpose to the day and meaning to the effort. I have seen firsthand the impact that having a regular income, earned through work and not subsidy, gives to the individual and to the family. I have seen the pride that comes from earning and the sense of purpose that cannot be replicated by aid programs no matter how well-intentioned.

But this is a double-edged sword. Technological backwardness cannot and should not be a long-term solution; I would be disingenuous if I said that I think it should be. We cannot cling to inefficiency and low productivity and low wages; that is not the future we should aim for.

What bothers me is that some people celebrate the coming of technology and the attendant loss of jobs without seeming to care that there are real human beings who are made redundant by the process. Development is not just about increasing productivity or having clean spreadsheets; it is about helping people through change without discarding them in the process.

I am not arguing against progress; I am arguing against recklessness. We must modernize, yes, but we must modernize with a commitment to protecting our livelihoods in the process. If there is one quiet lesson in our technological stagnation, it is that progress that ignores people is no progress at all, and the smartest progress is the kind that lets machines augment our work, not diminish our value.

Ok sa rituals and traditions, wala sa puso, wala sa gawa!

We are not describing a company or an agency, we are looking into the brand of Christianity in the Philippines. The Philippines is often celebrated as the largest Christian nation in Asia, with Catholicism and other Christian traditions deeply embedded in its culture. Churches dominate skylines, religious festivals fill calendars, and faith-based language permeates everyday life. Yet, despite this outward religiosity, corruption remains one of the most persistent problems in Philippine society.

We live in a nation where churches rise tall above our towns, where fiestas and processions fill our streets, and where faith is proudly proclaimed as part of our identity. The Philippines is known as the largest Christian nation in Asia. Yet, despite this outward religiosity, corruption continues to poison our politics and weaken our society.

This paradox raises a troubling question: has Christianity in the Philippines become superficial, serving more as ritual and identity than as a transformative moral force? If so, this superficiality may be a root cause of the corruption that plagues the nation’s leaders.
Personally I am on the belief, that this is the reason why corruption thrives, because the connection to Christ is simply a recited prayer and a ritual participated, not a way of life, not the transformative type.

What then must we do? We must break the curse. We must demand leaders who embody integrity beyond ritual. We must insist that faith translates into justice, transparency, and service. We must call on churches to be prophetic voices, speaking truth to power. And we, as citizens, must refuse to be deceived by superficial displays of religiosity.

If the people demand leadership that is not the predatory type, we must demand the Christianity of our leaders that goes beyond rituals nor traditions. It must be a Christian way of life.

ONCE again, we are presented with the paradoxical teaching of the Beatitudes in the gospel reading of the Mass of the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time. (cfr. Mt 5,1-12) We, of course, wonder how these Beatitudes, which flip conventional wisdom, can be the source of blessedness for us.

They obviously are not simply about promoting suffering or hardship, but rather about revealing the true, ultimate and heavenly values that are meant for us. Yes, we can find strength in weakness, joy in sorrow and power in humility if we would try our best to depend wholly on God, rather than simply on our own selves.

Without God, all the negative elements in our life will remain negative and harmful to us. But with him as we should, all things work for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) Even all our earthly suffering and death can lead us to our eternal joy and life in heaven.

The Beatitudes actually reveal God’s heart and values that should be reflected and lived by us also. They show the path to true happiness and fulfillment. They challenge societal norms and expectations that are based only on worldly and temporal values. In short, the Beatitudes tell us that the world’s way is not the only way. God’s ways are different, and they are the path to true joy and satisfaction.

Said another way, the Beatitudes convert what we usually consider as human disasters or clear disadvantages and inconveniences according to worldly standards into a source of joy, a means of our redemption, a path to heaven, narrow and difficult though it may be.
They expand our understanding of what would comprise as our true happiness by including those situations which we normally regard as unsavory and therefore to be avoided as much as possible, if not hated.

To learn to live the Beatitudes is definitely a lifelong task and journey. We really need to pray and reflect, begging God to tell us where we can grow and become more and more his image and likeness. For this, we need to study and involve ourselves in a lifelong program of Christian formation, monitoring our progress regularly and without let up even if we encounter mistakes and failures along the way.

And to be sure, we can live those beatitudes, because Christ himself would give us all the necessary graces. We just have to train ourselves to have the appropriate attitudes, skills and virtues.

We have to learn to be patient, which is an integral part of the virtue of fortitude that in the end can only be animated by genuine charity. We have to be ready when we are bombarded with worldly goods that can take us away from God, cool down our piety, and lead us to sin.

Or when we cannot help but mourn not only because of the death of someone but also because of some failure we commit or a misery we cannot shake off. Or when we get misunderstood and provoked in our daily exchanges of ideas and opinions with others. Or when we have to rein in our curiosity and raging hormones to keep our heart pure and in its proper orientation toward God.

Let’s always remember the beatitudes, and continually ask for the grace to believe and live them to the hilt. Christ’s promises cannot be frustrated. We have to strengthen our faith in his word. And start to live calmly, oozing with confidence and focused on what really matters in life!

The beatitudes should always be in our mind, heart and lips!