FAIR SUNSHINE

When our blessed Lord spoke those luminous words, "You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world" (John 8:23) , He was expressing a sense of belonging that transcends every experience, every attachment, and every fleeting treasure we may ever know on this mortal side of eternity. Christ is, eternally and essentially, from above; and thus, by the sheer, unmerited election of grace, are we, the adopted children of God, also declared to be. To receive into our hearts the declaration of His subsequent testimony, "but I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you," is to realize how incomparably special the believer is held in the discerning eyes of the Almighty. In this divine transaction, God the Father offers nothing less than the entirety of who He is, manifesting His full being in the person of the most valuable treasure in all of heaven—the promised Messiah, Christ Jesus. This is the hig...

I confess that I nearly did not address them at all, for my flesh was apprehensive, as it so often is, and my mind was utterly void of anything resembling a ready compliment or a hint of genuine charity. Two full days had passed without the proper benefit of rest, and burdened as I was by a myriad of urgent affairs, my faculties were naturally quite dulled. Indeed, my only earnest desire was that my physical frame might, for one rare instance, be granted sleep, and that my troubled thoughts might finally consent to the same peace. The simple necessity of securing a place to pass time—a brief interval of private relief—led me to this spot, immediately after having conveyed my beloved wife and daughters to the hospital for their consultation. This sacred site, the environs of the Parish of St. Martin of Tours, sits within the bustling Bocaue Town Proper. Upon my entrance, and after settling the required toll, I was immediately beset by a small, importunate company of boys, perhaps ...