After the onslaught of the two Typhoons in Tino and Uwan came a very important house part, the roof.
Why roofs matters? For one it is a shelter on top of our heads.
The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons per year, making durable roofing materials essential for lasting protection. While it’s true that the right choice can protect your home and lower your maintenance expenses, there are more reasons why roof material matters in shaping your property’s worth.
When a natural disaster strikes, it can cause great damage to homes and buildings. One of the most important parts of a house that needs to be prepared for such events is the roof. A strong and reliable roof can protect your family and belongings from dangerous weather conditions.
Roofs are our first line of protection from rains, hale and snow. In the Philippines, roofs are symbolic and concrete, a durable means to help our people survive. And survive they did , holding unto and embracing on all fours on the roof of their houses, in Cebu and Catanduanes, elsewhere.
And that, many of our people, under the lashing of the Super Typhoon cling to it and save them from being strewn and carried into the Open Sea, for them the roof was the superhero.
Yet, again, the roof is now also a symbol of how high the tide of neglect. How formidable the force of systemic corruption that we cannot be safe inside our homes, because floods will engulf and devour the hapless one. We are up to the roof with thievery that its demoralizing to pay our taxes nowadays.
Every rooftop is a reminder of the possibility that come floods and high water, it’s a sanctuary, a safe haven. It is also a reminder, how buried we are with the quagmire and entanglement of hogwash and corruption, that its is not knee-deep, neck deep, its nearly over and through the roof.
Preparing for the end
THAT’S what we can get from that gospel episode where Christ made the people, who admired the temple for its rich adornment, to realize how it was going to be at the end of time. (cfr. Lk 21,5-19)
Oh, many terrible things were going to happen, he told them. But at the same time, he reassured them that while they shall be hated by all men for Christ’s sake, not a hair of their head shall perish. “In your patience you shall posses your souls,” he said.
This gospel episode is definitely a call for us to prepare for the end, either of our own life or of time and the world. It’s a preparation that is also a call for us to really strengthen our faith, and to keep on going and growing in our spiritual life that in the end is what truly matters, since that is the life that brings us to our eternal bliss with God.
In this regard, we need to see to it that our profession of our belief in God, and the accompanying practices of piety that it involves, should always continue to grow and improve, making appropriate adjustments, proper adaptations and even necessary corrections along the way.
We cannot deny that we always tend to fall into lukewarmness and complacency, leading us to fall into all sorts of inconsistencies between what believe in, what we teach and what we do. It calls to mind that accusation Christ once made against some of the Pharisees whose words we may follow but not their deeds, since, as he said, “they preach, but do not practice what they preach.” (Mt 23,3)
We have to continually check and review how we are doing in our spiritual life, in our relation with God and with others. Do we really find time to pray, to know more about God? Are we progressing in our skill in discerning God’s will and ways at every moment of the day?
This definitely would require of us to have some kind of a plan of life that covers everything in our life, making them pursue the ultimate goal of our life. If we are to be effective especially in facing the many challenges and opportunities today and in the future, we need to hone our skills at making plans and strategies, both of the short-run and the long-run types.
This may require a lot of patience and self-discipline, and the learning curve may be very slow at the beginning. But then again if we persist, there is no other way but to succeed.
Of course, the most important goal of the plans and strategies is how to relate everything to God. We have to come out with concrete ideas as to how to make that goal achievable. Obviously, this would involve developing the virtue of order and of inculcating the proper sense of priorities, giving the inputs of our Christian faith the first priority.
We have to examine our attitudes, practices and habits, and see which ones would reinforce this effort and which would hinder it. We have to learn how to make plans and strategies that are realistic and are organic in the context of our personal circumstances. They have to be plans and strategies that know how to flex with the changing circumstances without getting confused or lost in our proper focus.
We should be able to see a gradual process of developing our spiritual life such that we can feel more intimate with God himself and that our whole life goes truly in synch with God’s will and ways! This is what is meant by preparing for the end.