Homily

Tagamasid, the official campus paper of the College of Arts and Sciences of UP Manila, will be revived next year after seven years of hibernation. We're currently looking for writers. Qualifications? If you study in CAS and write well, you're in. It's easy. You don't need to show us your True Copy of Grades, Form 5, a 2×2 ID picture or some such—just send me an email at lizlanuzo@yahoo.com.ph. The only hitch is that the qualification "write well" would be mainly defined by me. I'm not strict or evil, per se, and even though I'm not easy to please I am not unreasonable. So, yeah, give it a shot.

Or not.

Some punk sent me this entry via email. Hearken and save your soul:

Do You Want to Win the Prize?

 

            Billy woke up early from his bed and uttered a prayer. It was the day of their family’s visit to his aunt and her newborn. It takes approximately an hour for them to get to their relatives’ house. So Billy and family fixed themselves, and then went with some stuff for the baby.

            They arrived happily with excitement to see the baby. “Ricky is the boy version of Sarah, how cute!” Billy’s mother and sisters said joyously. Sarah is the sister of baby Ricky; she is barely five years of age. The olds proceed to the kitchen while Sarah stayed with her brother and kuya Billy. “Kuya, I’m so blessed because God gave me a brother”. “Yes, God is that good – He answers prayers, so be good too and you will be in heaven, little girl. Sarah paused in wonder, then asked, “what is heaven kuya?”, “it is the place where there is no sadness but joy, it is God’s prize for the good people” said he. “A prize for us who loves Jesus?”, “precisely my dear, so continue to be good”, “yes kuya, I am, and I love Jesus too, I love Him though mama and papa didn’t tell me about the prize”, “ so what are they telling you about God?”, “they tell me that Jesus me, them, and my baby brother, He created  us all, and loves much; it’s just why I love Him too”. The world seemed to stop for Billy; he was amazed on what he heard from a 5-year old girl. It seemed like God was using his cousin to remind him of his wrong notion.

            Prizes are what we are always looking for as compensation for something we do, but the highest prize of all is just for free – it’s God’s Heaven, His promise to us who acknowledge that we are His. But sometimes, we just look at, and worse, focus on it. We love God just because we want to be in heaven. We go to church, attend Bible studies, and serve Him in any ways just because we are wary that there is a prize that waits. If so, the essence of loving Him is missing, because it’s not He whom we love anymore but the Heaven and ourselves! Doing such will indeed lead us not to heaven.

            It is not enough to know the fact that He created and loves us and taught us how to love? Don’t let ourselves to be blinded by our own desires. A true Christian loves God truly, a true Christian is still a Christian without expecting something in return, he doesn’t care on the reward, all he knows is that he belongs to God and all he does is to follow Him.

            The prize will be given to those who are pure to God.

            So if you want to win the prize…DON’T AIM FOR IT.

This is my reply to his "article":

Hi. Your article sounds like a homily. Do you have something secular? Any academic papers? Editorials? Features? Anything but a homily.

This is what I really want to say:

 I dislike you already. Over my dead body.