What’s Your Opinion On This One?

12 SIGNS WHY FILIPINOS ARE GOD’S CHOSEN ONES
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
04/08/2007 MANILA, Philippines
Are Filipinos God’s “chosen people”?
Can we believe that Filipino workers slaving
abroad, those modern-day gypsies who clean toilets in
cramped apartments, hop from one hospital room to
another tending to patients, or drill holes in the
middle of the desert, are God’s “messengers”?
There may be doubts but the signs are everywhere,
according to Alexander L. Lacson, lawyer and author of
the best-selling book “12 Little Things Every Filipino
Can Do to Help Our Country.
”Our history as a Christian nation is replete
with signs to prove this, he said—-from the Spanish
conquest that started when galleons dropped anchor in
our waters in the 16th century to the arrival of
Bible-bearing Americans 300 years later, from our rich
natural resources to the Filipino diaspora. Lacson has
listed 12 signs purportedly showing why Filipinos are
God’s chosen. He discussed these signs—-the subject of
a forthcoming book—-in a recollection talk last
Tuesday at the Church of the Holy Sacrifice in
Diliman, Quezon City.
The signs are “like pieces of a puzzle that, if
put together, show us a picture of ourselves—-who and
what we are as a people,” Lacson said. These are:
(1) Explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in 1521 on
Limasawa Island, Leyte, in a flotilla of five ships
with a crew of 237, including a number of priests.
The priests were ready to spread Christianity
among the islanders, but Magellan was killed by local
warrior Lapu-Lapu’s men, forcing the Spaniards to sail
back to Spain, Lacson said. “If our history stopped
there, it means we would never have become a Christian
nation,” he said.
(2) Filipinos were claimed in the name of God. In
1565, a second Spanish colonial expedition led by
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sailed into Cebu.
When he set out for this part of the globe with
Fray Andres de Urdaneta, Lopez de Legazpi had specific
instructions from King Philip II to convert every soul
on the island to Christianity.
“What that means is that we were actually claimed
in the name of God in the second expedition,” Lacson
said. “If you look at this [through] the eyes of a
Christian, of a believer, [you will see that] there’s
a determined plan to make us a Christian people, a
Christian nation.”
NO ACCIDENT
(3) As an offshoot of the spread of Christianity in
the islands, the Philippines became the first
Christian nation in Asia.
“My question is this: Do you think it was only an
accident in history when we Filipinos became the only
Christian people in this part of the world?” Lacson
said.
He pointed out that the world’s three major
religions—-Christianity, Islam and
Buddhism—-subscribed to the idea that “there’s no
accident in life.”
“I’d like to believe that it was not an accident,
and that in fact and in deed, God had chosen these
people to be His people in this part of the world to
spread His message,” Lacson said, quoting John 15:16
(“You did not choose me, but I choose you…”).
(4) The Philippines is the first nation in Asia to
have Bibles.
Although Filipinos had been converted to
Christianity, they were prohibited from reading the
Bible during the 300-year Spanish rule, according to
Lacson. But the Americans, who took over from the
Spaniards after defeating them in the Battle of Manila
Bay in December 1898 (May 1898–MLT), brought copies
of the holy book.
“The Filipinos were the first Asians to read the
Bible. I look at it as another sign from God why He
chose us a people,” Lacson said.
(5) The Philippines is located in the middle of the
world, at least on the Pacific-centered map.
“A small group of tiny islands-—7,100
islands—-but it’s right there in the middle,” Lacson
said. “Is it an accident in history that our
Philippines is right there in the middle? Accessible
to the north, the south, the east and the west?”
4TH RICHES
(6) The Philippines is one of the richest countries
in the world today.
“It is the fourth richest country in deposits
like gold, copper, silver and chromite, and oil.
(According to last year’s business news report, the
Philippines is the Saudi Arabia of nickel, that is,
just as Saudi Arabia has the biggest oil reserves, the
Philippines has the biggest nickel deposits, the
metal in great demand in China today–and the local
nickel mining industry is in the stage of both actual
production and expansion.–MLT) Out of 193 countries,
we are No. 1 in terms of marine life biodiversity,”
Lacson said.
He said the country was so blessed with natural
and mineral resources that if one dug a hole even atop
a mountain, water would spring forth.
(7) The story of overseas Filipino workers is
biblical.
Lacson likened the OFWs to the young Israeli
shepherd David who killed the giant Philistine warrior
Goliath with his sling, and to Joseph “the dreamer,”
who was sold as a slave by his envious brothers but
rose to become overseer of Egypt after accurately
interpreting the Pharaoh’s dreams about the seven
years of plenty and seven years of famine in the land.
“The Bible is full of stories of how God used the
oppressed and the weak to spread His message of love
and justice and to humble the mighty, the strong and
the powerful,” he said.
Lacson related an anecdote about the late Jaime
Cardinal Sin who, while in Rome in 1999, was invited
to dinner by the president of the Italian car maker
Fiat Uno, whose children had a Filipino woman as their
nanny.
“The host told Cardinal Sin that the nanny was so
good that she turned their kids into better Catholics.
It turned out that the nanny, with the kids in tow,
would stop by a church and pray each time she went
out,” Lacson said, adding that there were countless
other stories of Filipinos sharing their faith even
with people of other religions.
He cited the story of Filipino nurses praying
over a Muslim patient in the throes of death in a
state-run hospital in Saudi Arabia. “You know how I
see that? I see that as an act of a
messenger-—shepherding these patients, although they
may have other religions, to God,” he said.
SEEDS BEARING FRUIT
The seventh sign naturally leads to the rest.
(8) OFWs—-nannies, domestic help, nurses and
caregivers—-are like ambassadors and messengers of
God.
“Maybe today we don’t see it yet. But maybe in
the future, we’ll see how the seeds [sown by] these
Filipinos working as domestics—-attending to these
kids, influencing their minds and affecting their
hearts on how to see the world and how to act—-will
bear fruit,” Lacson said.
(9) Filipinos breathe life to the churches of the
world.
Lacson said it was not uncommon to see Filipinos
in churches anywhere on the planet, either as a priest
delivering a sermon, as faithful hearing Mass, or as
members of the choir singing in the background.
“Wherever they are, whether as OFWS or residents,
according to Fr. James Reuter, they breathe life to
the churches all over the world,” he said.
(10) There is so much beauty in Filipinos as a people.
“Today, we have so many countrymen going abroad
as singers, dancers…. They entertain people. We have
singers on luxury ships or members of rock bands in
hotels. They bring happiness to other people; they
bring beauty,” Lacson said. “If you ask me, this is
one of the weapons that the Filipinos bring to the
world. That’s beauty,” he said.
(11) Filipinos can communicate with the world “with
their tongue.
”The Philippines is the third-largest
English-speaking country in the world—-again not by
accident,” Lacson said.
“We can actually communicate with the people in
the South, in America, in Africa, in Asia. OFWs,
caregivers, engineers—-they communicate with the
world,” he said.
And it helps that there are “many races” in the
Filipino, so that it is possible to “see the world in
that person. The heart of the world is in him,” he
added.
METICULOUSLY CHOSEN
(12) For the final sign, the name Pilipino means
“piling-pili” (meticulously chosen) and “pinong-pino”
(most refined).
“Is it an accident that we are called Pilipinos
in our own language?” Lacson said, adding:
“These are 12 signs that convinced me that we are
the chosen people of God. He chose us to be
messengers, to be His ambassadors, to spread His
message in other parts of the world.
”The only problem is that Filipinos have been
slow in claiming and proclaiming that they are indeed
God’s chosen people, Lacson said.
“I believe that if we can claim [to be] God’s
children, and proclaim it…and we teach our children
this, God will be happy with it, and He will bless us
as a people and as a nation,” he said.
(NOTE: Numbering of signs supplied.)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Lance, Nursing Board Exam 8th Placer
• Call Center Experience: Convergys Cebu | Lakbay Philippines
• CASHIER — Cebu Pacific Air — Ortigas Center | Philippines Call …
• CASHIER — Cebu Pacific Air — Ortigas Center | Philippines Call …
• Specialist, Talent Services (Compensation and Benefits) CEBU …

• Customer Service In An Instant Gratification Age What constitutes good customer service? Is it always being there for your customers? Is it the speed with which you respond to them? Is it making sure your customers can get their questions answered quickly and in any number of ways? To put it simply, the answer is yes.......
• Republicans protect sexual predators..."Family Values Party" my ass. Holy crap, this story keeps getting worse. In case you have not been near a television lately, here is the scoop - Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida just resigned from Congress because, um, someone found out about his sexually suggestive emails and IM's to a 16 year old male......
• Tito Ortiz Returns To The UFC According to the old saying time heals all wounds. In the fight game, money"or the potential of it"has the same curative effect. The latest evidence of this is the announcement that Tito Ortiz has patched things up with Dana White and agreed to a new contract to fight in......
• What’s your compassion level? “Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” ~ Anthony Robbins Everywhere you turn, there are relief efforts going on for the devastation faced in Haiti these past few weeks. Whether those efforts include local fire departments sending......
• linklings, the Jets strike back edition NFL History of the New York Jets (2pc) It's time for the Jets to win their Super Bowl. To crush the dreams of Beantown like George Mitchell crushed the Rocket's hopes for the Hall of Fame. I decline to accept the end of the Jets. It is easy enough to......

Tagged as: Opinion, this, What's, Your