+ RWS 780 November 5, 2017
/ 31st Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Gospel: Matthew 23:
1-12
“…you are all
brothers…you have but one Father in heaven”
Brotherhood
By Bishop Precioso
D. Cantillas, SDB, DD
Jesus reveals to us that we are all brothers since we have one Father in
heaven. If we believe in this, then we should look at one another in the spirit
of brotherhood. Brothers, consider each other with love and respect; they
support one another and do a lot of things for each other. A brother would even
sacrifice himself for the good and welfare of the other/s whom he considers as
coming from the same origin either by blood or by faith. I remember my elder
brother who worked in a bank and sent his salary for my sisters to go to
college and became professionals. Several similar situations abound in many
Filipino families.
Believing in what Jesus said, we could also do our work for the good and
welfare of others whom we consider as our brothers in the faith. We may not be
able to give our salaries for other people who are not our siblings, but, the
dedication and wholehearted efforts we spend on performing our jobs may be done
in view of the good that others may benefit from our work. The products and
services that result from our work that is done with our best efforts will
certainly affect positively others. When a worker does his job for money, he
would not perform his task as well as when he is aware that he does it for a
brother or sister he holds dear to himself. When the worker imbibes the
Christian sense of brotherhood, then he also establishes in the work place and
among his co-workers a family. Thus, a spirit of love, respect, cooperation
among workers would reign in the work place, and the heavenly Father, though
unseen, will certainly be present.
Brotherhood in
fraternities
By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS
The title of the reflection above,
“Brotherhood” brings to mind “fraternity”, and by association moves me to
re-examine the idea of brotherhood in today’s fraternities. Still piping hot in the current headlines is
the death last month of one neophyte during initiation rites which involved
hazing. One cannot simply look the other
way when a young man his parents had the highest hopes for is now dead due to
senseless violence done in the name of “brotherhood.”
All families—not just those
with sons in fraternities—should seriously question the validity of such
organizations that claim to promote brotherhood and yet use hateful standards
in accepting members. The problem of
hazing in fraternities has been with us for decades, coming into focus only
when an initiate dies, and then the case usually gets buried along with the
victim. Nobody seems to learn.
We who merely follow the
news may know nothing of the law in this case, but we do have common sense and
conscience—without any legal sophistication we know that some frat “brothers”
must own responsibility for the death of a “brother.” It seems ironic that the Aegis Juris
fraternity members—young men studying to become lawyers in the future—are already having an early OJT,
applying their legalistic skills and going around the law with their lawyers in
order to escape blame.
Families should also ask
themselves why their sons seek to belong in such exclusive fraternities—don’t they feel they already
belong in a loving family? A family that
recognizes the Creator as the Father of all teaches its children the sense of
brotherhood that Jesus speaks of: we need not feel superior to others because
we are all brothers, embraced by the Father’s love.
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