By Dr. Dencio S. Acop
It’s Christmas time once again folks! Will you be driving, flying, or sailing to be with family and loved ones? Surely you are! Thank God for Christmas, really! It is the perfect holiday despite winter. In fact, the stillness and melancholy brought about by the cold and snow help us better ponder the closing year about our lives, our relationships with others, and areas we can improve on to become better versions of ourselves in the coming year. It was stillness in the air and the brightness of the star that brought together the simplest and most sophisticated of men to seek out the anticipated Messiah and pay tribute to Him. The coming of the Incarnate Redeemer of the world sent by God, is, after all, the reason for the season. Jesus ended all unbelief, laid bare everything that was wrong with the world, and paid the ultimate sacrifice paving the way for all souls which choose to be good to enter heaven. Today, there is no excuse left for man to doubt the existence of God. Evidence is everywhere in the world through centuries of divine revelation. Daily miracles are being performed led by the Blessed Sacrament. This Christmas, I thank God for my faith and all it’s done for my life especially my family.
I honestly cannot think of my life as having any meaning without my faith. Looking back in hindsight, I think I now better understand what holy scripture says about prioritizing God first and man second. In two days, I shall turn 63. If you have been around as long as I have, you feel that you have already come full circle and that life has few surprises left for you. Still, I would not want to have lived my life any other way than living it with God first in mind. I can vividly think of several crossroads I could easily have taken through the past six decades. Traversing the crossroads seemed always a struggle for my soul. These decision points appeared to be always marked by the ups and downs of consolations and desolations. The crux of the matter only seemed to be paradoxically clearer when my soul went through its dark nights. No matter what is said or written, the Lord’s ways always seem to be the road less travelled. Few take this road because it is laden with thorns, crosses, and self-denials. The irony of faith is that man loses his appetite for worldly ambitions. I now realize that I had lost that appetite long ago before I knew it. I was given a cross to bear that helped me lose it. That cross for me made all the difference. And I never looked back.
In my fading years, I always think of my family. It doesn’t really matter whether I’ve spent close to thirty years serving in the military and some thirteen years working for the private sector. In the closing years, man always spends his presence and thoughts with family and loved ones. I think of how well my children and grandchildren are doing and I feel fine. I think of how my first wife is in heaven and I feel fine. I think of how love found me again with my second wife and I feel fine. I think of their love and the love of other family relatives, and friends, and I feel fine. I think of the parish community I serve in and I feel fine. There are a couple of things that West Point and my military service have imprinted in me: character and discipline. I am a stickler for character. I believe that good should win out in the end and that goodness is worth fighting for. Discipline allows me to transcend, for instance, the travails of distance and long separation from loved ones. I now have a global family. Mental discipline enables me to think of them and I feel fine. When I think of my family and their having a strong faith, I cannot but feel how most richly blessed I am among all men. When I think of them at all and that they are, indeed there are no words. Merry Christmas! God bless us all!
