What makes us Christians? This was one of the very first questions Sir Reyes asked us. Before he told us the answer, I thought to myself that to be Christians you have to be a good citizen, you have to do what is right, and you have to follow the teachings of Christ. Someone then volunteered to answer the question. She explained that to make us Christian we have to follow the teachings of Christ. It was correct but Sir followed up her answer with a question, “how would you do that? Give me a concrete example.” She couldn’t provide one. I thought one way to follow God’s teachings is to forgive one’s enemies or those who have done you wrong. With this in mind, I thought of the time my friend permanently scarred me for life during one of our high school camping sessions. Me, my brother, and my friends were at the camp site and found some sticks. Imagine immature and very hyperactive kids, throw in sticks in the picture and the rest is history. My friend, Chicharon (we called him that) threw a sharp stick towards me while we were fighting with the sticks. I don’t know why but I felt like I was stunned, I couldn’t move. I still remember what was going through my head at that time “I will try to dodge it like the matrix!” Then BAM! It hit me, just an inch below the eye, an inch below the eye. I didn’t feel the pain but I wept as I saw the blood gushing down my face. I felt it. I felt the blood. My friends and my brother then called for the teachers and then they had my face washed. I didn’t even notice that my brother took the stick that hit me and threw it into the woods. We then went to the nearest hospital but before that my friend came up to me and was saying sorry. I then said, without a moment’s hesitation, “its alright, its okay.” I forgave him without thinking about it. I didn’t mind, I didn’t hold a grudge. I was just living my life as if nothing happened. And telling my classmates tales of how I was hit with the stick. As I look back at that moment, I find myself to be very lucky indeed. If it was any inch higher, I could have been blind, even worse, dead. I thank God for that blessing indeed. But now its just a fleeting memory that will soon be long forgotten. As I look back to the question of sir, I believe that my answer was correct. We are Christians because of Jesus Christ. As Sir explained, Jesus Christ was a fellow human like you and me, he makes his own choices in life and he could have chose to flee for his life rather than be killed. But he didn’t, he stayed and sacrificed his life for us. For what purpose, you may ask. That purpose is to proclaim the kingdom of God. He has done this through words and in deeds. Where his message is… no other than… LOVE! Yes, LOVE! Love is one of the most powerful gifts that the Lord has given us. It is love that inspires us, that motivates us, and what drives us. Where is this found? In the gospel truth. They show the message of the Lord, but how do you suppose the message of Jesus is still with us? This is through the workings of the church. The church’s job is to disseminate God’s message and make sure that the people, his people, receive it. if the church and their followers are gone, the religion may be forgotten. So how does the kingdom of God work? Well, like any other kingdom, you have two elements, the king and the subjects. The subjects serve the king while the king takes care of his subjects. That is how it works. Another thing Sir discussed is that the kingdom of God is centered on the sacraments. The sacrament gives us the grace to be graceful. It is a step by step process really where everything is connected. Let us see, God’s sacrament is Jesus. Jesus’ sacrament is the church. The church’s sacraments are the seven sacraments. It’s a three step process. Let me ask you this, why do we even have laws? Laws are our morality. By upholding it, we are doing what is right and keep away the wrong. Sir Reyes taught us all of this. This is actually just the beginning.
The subject then took a new turn, we stopped talking about God and we started talking about other matters such as marriage, maturity, and love. In marriage we talked about its hardships and pleasure. In maturity we talked about the different areas of maturity, where I believe I am not mature enough. In love, we talked about authentic love. We talked about a lot of things in TRED and done a lot of activities but it seems like everything goes back to LOVE. But first, marriage. marriage, as Sir explained, has a lot of pros and cons but the way he explained it, it seemed like there are more cons. He talked about how the parents don’t really have time for themselves anymore, how hard it is, how everything would be all about the family. But what makes the parents want to undertake this hardships? Well its simple really, that is love. Why would one want to sacrifice their life for others? That is because of love. Love makes the world go round and love is the grease on our rusty gears. Moving on, the topic that really hit me the most actually during TRED class is the topic on maturity. I began to ask myself during the start of class, am I mature? What does it take to be mature? Will it be soon? All those I asked. Then Sir explained that there are 7 areas of maturity. There are the dependence-independence goals, give-get balance, troublesome feelings, sexual responsibility, hostility, rose-tinted glasses, and flexible & adaptable growth. These are the seven areas needed for the maturity in marriage. as I think about this, I don’t believe that I am ready for marriage then. I don’t think that I am mature enough for that. Sad as it may be, I still have a long way to go.
This class really thought me a lot. For one thing, I never even knew there was a pre-cana seminar. I believe I am just really out of the world. I am really thankful for acquiring Sir Reyes as my professor. His clever tales of life and his jokes. I would really miss them. I don’t even think that it was coincidence that Sir became our teacher. I thank the Lord for that.
