By Dr. Dencio S. Acop
Why are we here? Why has God, the Creator of the universe, allowed us to exist? Why has Perfection permitted imperfection? We seem to be the gray area between the extremes of light and darkness – of good and evil. The drama of human life unfolds because of this imperfection whose meaning becomes self-evident as we make our choices through life. We go through the ups and downs from our experiences and we learn. While the destination may be the end of the beginning from all these, it could also be the beginning of the end depending upon the journey we make of life. The journey itself is also the juice. At the end, I think every person can say that they’ve experienced it all – and that it made some difference. God does not need us for He is God. But He has gifted us with life and wants us to live it fully. He has shared himself with us undeserving as we are. Nevertheless, we question why God has allowed suffering in the world. But if there were no pain and suffering, there would also be no peace or joy. How could we know happiness without sadness? Peace without war? Love without hate? Life without death? How can we make sense of Christ’s life as a poor man? Or his horrific passion and death on the cross?
Divine revelation and the Incarnate Son have hinted in no uncertain terms the ends, ways, and means of attaining the glory of heaven and everlasting life. There is only one catch – to love God by loving humanity. And this has been the struggle of humanity throughout. With the growth of populations, and inspired by spiritual enlightenment, monarchies of the kind that found legitimacy in God’s ordination of earthly rulers evolved. Ideally in theory, governance of peoples by virtuous kings and queens whose power and inspiration came from God made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, as is often the case with imperfect man, earthly rulers at some point always managed to undermine already established institutions whose legitimacy resides in benevolent leadership. The reason for this aberration has always been self-interest more than the common interest began with selfish arrogations of royal entitlements by early leaders as if lineage automatically meant holiness. Disappointment with monarchs soon led to their ouster through revolutions by rebelling constituents. The classic example is of course the 19th century French Revolution. Constitutional democracies emerged from its ashes. While these worked for a time thanks to the post-WWII moral order and enshrinement of human rights, many so-called democracies today in 2025 are not true democracies. Selfish individuals and their enablers have made a career and mockery of politics for their absorptive capacity of greed than truly serving the common interests of their peoples. In short, the political leaders of today could hardly bring their own souls to heaven much more shepherd their sheep to greener pastures in the here and beyond.
After all are said and done, the human aspirations that lead us to heaven, tangibly and intangibly, are not the ones pointed upward in the world but downward through all humility and smallness. It is such a paradox that humanity does not exhaust itself towards uplifting the poorest of the poor, the sick and the dying, the wrongly convicted, or living by the truth rather than falsehoods and evildoing. It is so sad that given all the knowledge the world knows today, much of life is spent merely on materialistic distractions that don’t even last. Well, come to think of it, nothing really lasts in this world. Everything perishes sooner or later. Those age spots and wrinkles are there no matter how people cover them with plastic surgery. They remain – just plastic. But there is something that always feels real when we do good in the world. When, instead of wanting to always have the last say, we keep silent. When, instead of dishing it out, we pull back and just take it. When we ask forgiveness from God and try to be better. When we never lose sight of our compassion and empathy for all the pain and suffering in the world. I once was a bearer of the sword and thought that to right a wrong was my calling. Now, I know that God has planned something for us – not greater, but better. He once said that those who live by the sword will perish by it. It means that the true way is the way of peace. It is not for us to fight God’s battles. God can take care of Himself. When we do violence against others (except perhaps in self-defense or a just war), we will always do violence against our very own selves – physically, rhetorically, spiritually. Truth is, we do not have to do any of these even against our enemies. God already has. He fights the battles of His people. And He’s already won. The enemies of God can never win. Death smiles on them already.
