The Wolf: Magis

ellobofilipino:

I met up with someone I knew back then yesterday. And we talked about how things have changed over the past year. She asked how I was doing with work, life, and all the other things I am into. And then she asked me: How are you able to cope with the expectations of people around you and how much effort do you try to put in just so you could meet their expectations?

And then I told her that there was this word which we were constantly bombarded with in the Ateneo. And the Jesuits ingrained that word into our heads eversince I was six up to the day I left law school. And that word wasMagis.

Magis is a word which means more. Taken from the Jesuit motto, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, meaning For the Greater Glory of God, the word is a challenge to all Ateneans or individuals who have been educated in the Jesuit tradition, to do more than what is required or expected of one’s self. And in the context of the Roman Catholic Church, we are expected to do more in what occupies us not for personal credit or gain for the praise and greater glory of the Almighty.

In the secular context, Magis can be expressed in how one accomplishes actions which are required of one’s self by his/her superiors, fellow workers, and even family members. When given an obligation which would contribute to the betterment of an office, an organization, or even the family, one should learn to approach the task with the idea of doing more than what is expected by the co-workers, the peers, and even the family members. The concept of doing more would also not only be an expression of the fulfilment of one’s duty but more importantly, a manifestation of one’s willingness to go the extra mile for the company, the group, or the family.

To do more is also to go beyond mediocrity. In a society like ours in the Philippines where much of politics and the public sphere is dominated by concepts of “pwede na yan” or “okay na yan,” much of the quality of services, goods, and even academic work in the country has deteriorated over the past few years. While the lowered standards in society may mean lesser effort for most of us, it also translates to expecting products which are substandard, services which are unsatisfactory, and a government which is unable to address the needs of the people.

We need to challenge ourselves. We need to do more than what people expect of us. We need to make people see that there is more to us than just the low estimation they have of our person. If we demand much from our government, our private corporations, and even our schools, then it is should also be incumbent upon us to demand more from ourselves and not only from those around us.

Magis - a word which back then I always found corny and sickening since we always had to write formal compositions and essays about how it can applied in our lives. Of course back then, I didn’t know much. I was just a student. But after leaving the Ateneo for almost a decade now and trying to find my place in the greater scheme of things, I realize that Magis, along with other Atenean and Jesuit traditions, have been helpful as guiding lights in the confusing realities in the vibrant society we have in this country.

I am not your most devout Filipino Roman Catholic, nor do I wave my religion in the face of every person I meet, but I try to silently abide my life with certain principles which I have learned from those who belong to Ignatius’ Compania. There have been times when I have disagreed with some of them and I have been indebted to their kindness and consideration, but I have never strayed far from pursuing all that I can in the service of the people and for the Greater Glory of God. Thank you Inigo! You and your brethren have taught me much. And I shall continue living a life in the tradition of Magis! 

neusdadt:

A Letter to My Parents: Of God, love, hope, and everything I’ve learned in Ateneo.

Dear Mama and Papa,

I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I guess there’s always a first time for everything.

I am your son. I am 19 years old. And I am about to graduate in college. So, because you were ‘shocked’ by my ‘too radical thoughts’ as you have made known to me, let me tell you everything I have learned about God – through living with you, in the books I read, the movies I watch, the people I talk to, in school, and in life.

You raised me in a good Christian home, and gave me a good Christian life. Because of your hard work, I live a good life. You sent me to a good school, bought me the things I needed, and the things I wanted. By 19 years old, I have already achieved many of the dreams I have set for myself when I was a young boy – among other things, I have gone to Ateneo to study what I want, live independently, and visit Paris. I’ve been, as how you’d probably put it, blessed.

Drawing from all the lessons I’ve learned in Sunday school, and from all the sermons I’ve listened so intently to in the Sunday services, it can be said that God has, indeed, given me so much. With all of these in mind, it is easy to justify my faith: Arbie prays, Arbie remains a good boy, Arbie is rewarded by God.

But ultimately, going through 19 years of existence, 19 years of living, 19 years of life, bears only one inevitable consequence: change.

For you to read what I have written in my blog especially about my faith and how far I’ve changed may be surprising. I am partly to be blamed. I’ve never told you much about what I’ve gone through anyway. So through this letter, let me, as best as I can, detail my beliefs, and how I’ve arrived at them.

I’ll be honest: if you would have asked me if I believed in God one month ago, I would have said no.

If there is anything my Ateneo education has taught me (all thanks to your investment), it’s that I should be concerned for the Other, as in the people around me – my family, my friends, my acquaintances, strangers, people, humanity.

I’ve undergone four courses of philosophy (two courses on the Philosophy of Man, Philosophy of Morality and Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion). I’ve learned about Heidegger’s concept of being-in-the-world-with-others, Levinas’s concept of love and kindness for the Other, Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative and duty, Aristotle’s Ethics, and a lot more.

The Ateneo, being Catholic, had subjected me to four courses of theology as well. In theology classes, where we always referred to our bibles (like you always advice me to), I can pinpoint my most important learning to one thing: the preferential option for the poor. It never made sense to me why, with majority of the Filipinos being so devout to God, this nation is not economically blessed.

Beyond philosophy and theology courses, however, I am also a Development Studies major, as you’d recommended me to be. A lot of people are not familiar with my course. And whenever they ask me what I study, I would always answer, “Well, basically, how to solve poverty.” For four years of my undergraduate life, I have been facing the realities of poverty, injustice, oppression, and suffering daily – DS101, DS112 (approaches to solving poverty), DS102, DS130 (where we actually met Sumilao farmers and other people from marginalized groups), SA127 (social inequalities), and so on.

I also went on three immersion programs: NSTP (where we built houses for GK every Saturday for one whole year), JEEP (where I had to work as a UP vendor for 3 weeks), and the main immersion program (where I stayed in the house of a farming family affected by the TPLEX for one weekend).

Not to mention the various discourses I’ve had with people in real life and online among political bloggers talking about racism, rape victims, the economic and social turmoil in poor Asian and African countries, and the dictatorships that left half the world unfree, among other things.

My 127-page thesis was on a similar subject – the Occupy Wall Street, where people struggle for their welfare against the increasingly police state that is the US.

I know suffering. I’ve learned about suffering. And I have suffered myself.

And because of all of this, I have found it hard to reconcile all these suffering with the God that you introduced to me, the all-loving, all-powerful God that I’ve seen from the Church and the Sunday school. If God were indeed all-loving and all-powerful, why is the Earth marred with so much pain?

I was blessed so much, and to justify the existence of God based on that alone would be selfish. Why can he bless me, but not other people, too?

You told me and my Christian friends and professors have told me: “God’s logic is incomprehensible to man. It’s all God’s plan.”

But I cannot help but have a brain that works, that tries to make sense of things. It is, after all, according to Aristotle, in man’s nature to think, to exercise reason. Believe me when I say that life would have been easier if I did not think. If I was not burdened with consciousness. If I could go on living as the good and faithful Christian boy that you’ve raised me up to be. As the maxim goes, “Ignorance is bliss.”

Philosophy of Religion has introduced me to Albert Camus, who taught me that life, in itself, has no meaning except the ones you create out of it. I believed him. He made sense. Life is just life and there is nothing more to it than to live. After all of this, there is only death. But if there is one more thing I’ve picked up from the hero of his novel, The Plague, it was to rebel against the meaninglessness of existence.

I’ve always believed in a “something more.” That feeling I get when I look up at the moon, when I sit silently on the shore by the sea, when I’ve just read a beautiful poem, upon hearing my favorite song, or when I’ve had a fun night with friends. Something inside me stirs and urges me to declare, “I am alive! And the universe where I’m in, it is too perfect.” Perhaps, this “something more” arises from the meaning that we’ve created. And perhaps, this creation of meaning is our very rebellion against the meaninglessness of life. By virtue of our miraculous existence (rather than non-existence), there is already a “something more” at work – in the life we live, in the things we do, and in the relationships we create. I refuse to believe that I am merely a composition of matter. I refuse to reduce my passions, dreams, ambitions, friendships, art, music, and all the things wonderful in this life to merely physics and chemistry. I believe in the “something more.”

I do not resign to this meaninglessness of life. I accept it, but I accept it with a smile. I accept it with courage, resilience, and the promise to live this one life I have fully. I accept it with happiness. And perhaps, this acceptance of the meaninglessness of life, of the suffering that we cannot explain, and choosing to be happy despite of all of it, is what Gabriel Marcel calls “hope.” In the face of absurdity and on the verge of despair, we hope that our lives are not merely products of atoms and molecules, but that it is something more, that we’ve lived it meaningfully, through our family and friends, and through the things that we do. And that even if we may perish physically, like all humans do in death, our beings, and the remnants of our beings, will go on.

Marcel said that the highest expression of love is in saying, “I hope in Thee for us.” Love here is understood in the definition of Scott Peck as the extension of one’s self. Love, basically, is what stops me from heeding my own pure self-interest alone. Love is what prevents me from robbing banks and stealing money, what prevents me from getting a chair and smashing it in the face of someone I hate. Love is extending my concept of self to include others – to feel as they feel, to do as they do (and to not do to them what I don’t want them to do to me). And this capacity to choose to love is precisely what makes us human beings (and not animals that principally follow instinct). To “hope in Thee for us” becomes the highest expression of this love because it is an extending of the self to the other that goes beyond the scientific limits of human life. It is a love that, more than “‘til death do us part,” lasts for eternity. Because of my love for people – for you, for my friends, and for humanity – I hope that our lives, although situated in a meaningless and pain-ridden world, is lived with meaning. And that, more than our lives, our BEING – our existence rather than non-existence – goes on forever.

Marcel makes it a point to say that hope is never calculating or certain, never demanding or proud. Hope is, essentially, an acceptance of gift that one does not deserve. In all that I’ve just said, I hope – to whoever or whatever, perhaps to no one in particular, or even perhaps to nothing at all – with a sincere humility, timidity, and innocence. Learning the natural sciences has taught me that the probability of life after death may be an impossibility. And I can accept that. In fact, I already did. And this awareness makes me cherish this one and only life I have. But, nevertheless, in all quiet contentment, I hope. Kung wala, eh di wala. Kung meron, tatanggapin. I will my receive my being and its continuation like the gift that it is.

In our limited rationality as human beings, can we ever truly answer the question, “Is there a God?” Probably not. We will never, ever know. One may choose to believe it, one may choose not to believe it. As for me, I am more or less pragmatic in dealing with the question.

All I know is that amidst this suffering and pain – this meaninglessness of it all – I will try my best to be a decent human being. I will try my best to love, to extend myself, so that I can treat other people with goodness. I will try to pursue my happiness, as we all should. And I will always strive to create and find the “something more” in everyone and everything.

Perhaps this is how I understand the notion of God, perhaps this is how I understand life. That God is just another word for a “something more,” and that life is best lived in love. Words will trivialize the messages that is in the very center of my soul, but this is as best as I can put it. After all, my 19 years worth of understanding these is too complex to be summarized in one general sentence – and it shouldn’t be.

I’ve told you time and again, your understanding may not be my understanding. And my understanding may not be your understanding. We are, after all, our own persons, with our own set of rationalities. I’ve come up on my own understanding of God and life with my own thinking, as you have on your own. Maybe we just understand both God and life in our own special and unique ways.

So, in an attempt to give just a little bit more of clarity, let me answer some questions that one might have about me: Am I an atheist? I don’t think so. Agnostic? Maybe, but not quite. Theist? Not entirely.

Then what am I?

In the best way to put it as I possibly can,

I am hopeful.

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wowfunniestposts:

OH MY GOSH HE LOOKS SO HAPPY

Ahh:))))))

It’s REMY!

Follow this blog and laugh some more

(Source: doctor-mambo)

did-you-kno:

As per the study, college students learn very little in their freshman and sophomore years.

Source

No… I don’t believe in this. My first year has been challenging but fun-learning. I’ve learned so many things in Ateneo and I even apply them in my life. :)

I wanna add this bear to my pets. :D

(Source: thefrogman)

iwdrm:

“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”

Fight Club (1999)

Bang! One of my fave psych films. :)

“If I didn’t say anything, people always assume the worst… If people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you… instead of just waiting for their turn to speak..” -Fight Club

nochocolatecandy:

neusdadt:

lollistar:

This is just too funny. Good job Rizal Lib. 

My school > your school.

HAHAHAH ILY, Rizal Library <3

ME GUSTAH. =) I so love the Rizal Library. It’s one of my favorite places around the Ateneo campus. Plus, these ads are funny and do attract attention. :))

The Script - For The First Time cover by Boyce Avenue

Oh, these times are hard, yeah, they’re making us crazy
Don’t give up on me, baby

She’s all laid up in bed with a broken heart
While I’m drinking Jack all alone in my local bar and we don’t know how
How we got into this mad situation, only doing things out of frustration
Trying to make it work, but, man, these times are hard

She needs me now but I can’t seem to find the time
I got a new job now on the unemployment line and we don’t know how
How we got into this mess, is it God’s test? Someone help us ‘cause we’re doing our best
Trying to make things work, but, man, these times are hard

But we’re gonna stop by drinking our cheap bottles of wine
Sit talking up all night, saying things we haven’t for a while, a while, yeah
We’re smiling but we’re close to tears, even after all these years
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting for the first time

She’s in line at the dole with her head held high
While I just lost my job but didn’t lose my pride, and we both know how
How we’re going to make it work when it hurts, when you pick yourself up you get kicked to the dirt
Tryin’ to make it work, but, man, these times are hard

But we’re gonna start by drinking our cheap bottles of wine
Sit talking up all night, doing things we haven’t for a while, a while, yeah
We’re smiling but we’re close to tears, even after all these years
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting for the first time

Drinking our cheap bottles of wine
Sit talking up all night, saying things we haven’t for a while, a while, yeah
We’re smiling but we’re close to tears, even after all these years
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting for the first time

For the first time
Oh, for the first time
Yeah, for the first time
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting for the first time

Oh, these times are hard, yeah, they’re making us crazy
Don’t give up on me, baby
Oh, these times are hard, yeah, they’re making us crazy
Don’t give up on me, baby

Oh, these times are hard, yeah, they’re making us crazy
Don’t give up on me, baby
Oh, these times are hard, yeah, they’re making us crazy
Don’t give up on me, baby

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I can’t seem to stop listening to this song.

What makes a True Filipino unique from a Typical one? :) Must watch.

(Enough of the criticisms on the video, I just want to appreciate the video’s purpose - to promote Nationalism) :)