Bertobatlah dan percayalah kepada Injil, repent and believe in the Gospel. But what does it mean to repent and to believe? Faith is first and foremost God's grace, it is an inspiration which is inspired by the prime mover in the hearts of the faithful. People without any belief in anything can never have faith in anything. Therefore I think that men without God and without faith simply live their lives without a goal, direction and purpose. But since faith is grace, then people must pray for the grace to believe. Humans who are engrossed with material goods have no time to assk for the grace to believe. They are people who believe so much in themselves that they forget what or who they are in the world. Allured by the seeming goodness and truth in the material world, they are made to believe that they are masters of the world, demi gods in themselves thus there is no need for God. I believe that ash wednesday reminds us of the fact that man needs God and that without God, man is nothing. He was created from dust, and from dust he shall return. We give up the simple pleasures of the flesh to get in touch with our basic needs and feel that we are never complete unless we find fulfillment in God. Our physical hunger is a reminder of a much greater hunger which continuous to be unsatiated until we find fullness in God.
Ironically, I together with Elson and Suji our parish driver went to galaxy mall to have a jalan jalan. As if not eating breakfast was not enough torture, we went to a place of temptation, a modern day desert. It was my first time to really go out in a mall here in Surabaya with the sole purpose of jalan jalan and we did it on a day when we are suppose to fast. It felt worse because you were there and yet you are not allowed to eat anything, its like going around the fastfood, with the smell of food, and all you can do is look. Ofcourse we ate lunch because fasting allows us to eat one full meal on a fasting day but still no meat. I think the sacrifice here was more of knowing oneself and saying no to whatever the desires of the flesh maybe. Sarap sanang mag-ice cream, kumain ng burger, uminom ng starbucks, manood ng cine, pero hindi, kailangan magsacripisyo total twice a year lang naman tayong required gawin ito, hindi pa ba naman tayo susunod?
Aside from galaxy mall, we likewise went for a Surabaya tour of the Monumen Kapal Selam, a submarine used during the 1940's by the Indonesian navy, and was first launched in Surabaya. The monument has an interactive museum inside, which gives viewers a feel of how it is like to be insde a submarine. We also watched a vidio rama of a documentary about the beginnings of the Indonesian navy and marines, citing their importance specially in protecting and patrolling the archipelago's borders.
Another must see along this river bank is the monument of a shark and a crocodile or "buwaya" which forms the letter S. I would like to believe that this is like the Merlion of Singapore, but in this case, the shark spews water to the crocodile and back to the river.
You know what? Three people from Surabaya have already texted me asking where these were taken. It is like when I first came to the Aquino Ancestral last November, although our house was just a block away, I never went to that house until I was 29 years old.
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