So goes a remembered song that I quote as the title, as the better times we anticipated last week thankfully came true this week in sunny skies with a few intermittent cooling showers to brighten us up and freshen the trees, the grass and flowering bushes in our parks and gardens. This in the wake of the disastrous typhoons that devastated most of central and northern Luzon, and the rain and floods in Cebu and Mandaue cities late last week with the quick passage of the latest, but weakened, tropical depression.
The days that followed brought on a series of ironically varied quick-changing events.
Last Saturday, Talisay celebrated their annual fiesta in honor of their patron saint, the great St. Teresa of Avila, as they feasted in parties and get-togethers with their famous halad inasal.
The Sunday that followed was significantly World Food Day in the month of October.
But that same day, we were shocked with the report on the tragic massacre of a family in Talisay!
Then more shocking news followed on Monday, with the assassination of Italian missionary priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio by a lone gunman in Arakan Valley, North Cotabato, his parish of mostly lumad or indigenous peoples. How tragically ironic that this should happen in this month of October, which is Indigenous Peoples’ Month in the Philippines!
The series of disastrous events that followed after, in the continuing government action against dissidents in the south, particularly in Basilan, consisted mainly of domestic violence as well as crimes against and among youths, as well as other crimes against the elderly, sickly and destitute and tandem-riding (hired?) gunmen on motorcycles shooting government officials, the rich and the famous, the haves and the have-nots.
As for the latter, could they be reflective of what started as “Occupy Wall Street” protests in the States, then in the United Kingdom and other developed and developing countries?
But despite all this widespread “weeping and wailing,” let us look to the anticipated better times, the clichéd but real silver linings.
Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle is now the new Archbishop of Manila, following the retirement of Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales. Here in Cebu, our new Archbishop Jose Palma has been requested to mediate in our current flyover controversy. He celebrated Mass at the EcoTech in Lahug last Oct. 5th in celebration of World Teachers’ Day with the theme “Teachers serve as role models for students.” And in this connection education-wise, of the proclaimed five top-performing high schools in the country, two are from Cebu: the Cebu City Science High School and the Mandaue City National High School. Congratulations!
On the current disturbed state of family affairs here in Cebu, another respected church official, archdiocesan media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay said that the problem is rooted in the breakdown of Filipino moral values, as described by the Family and Life Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Cebu. Thus, there is a need to strengthen the family to avoid violence.
Now, lest we forget, we have been blessed with a number of feast days in October, the month of the Rosary and the Blessed Virgin Mary: memorials of Our Lady of Fatima last Oct. 13 and the first memorial for Blessed Pope John Paul II tomorrow, the 22nd.
In closing, please include in your prayers the soul of the late Beatriz Gonzales Sta. Cruz, mother of our secretary
Debbie of the Cebu United Radio and TV Artists (Curta) Inc.
Till next week, may God continue to bless us, one and all!