Birthday – A Celebration and A Challenge

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Birthday – A Celebration and A Challenge

(June 16, 2023)

God is love. God is the source of life. Life is a gift from God. Human life is a by-product of the love between two individuals chosen by God to be His instruments in creation. Our parents are God’s procreators in bringing human life into the world. The day that our mother gave birth to us is our birthday. And we commemorate that special day as a celebration to thank God and our parents of the gift of life.

More than a thanksgiving celebration for another year of life, birthday has a two-fold meaning that propose challenges to the individual person.

 


One, birthday is a reminder that God has given us another year of life because of a life well lived.

·        For children - for living a life of innocence and fun that brings joy to the family especially. For continuing to be a constant reminder to adults that purity of heart is essential foundation to life.

·        For adolescents – for growing up and living through the challenging stage of life development. Such is an affirmation of how important personal values and principles must be developed for the common good. For wrestling with challenges of their life stage and build the foundation of a principled life for years ahead.

·        For adults – For responding to living a life of social awareness and responsibility towards the building up of a community that is God-fearing and other-centered. For taking their various roles of being parents, relatives, friends, and neighbors in the pursuit of peace and harmony among one another. For overcoming the challenges and fighting the temptations that would bring about chaos and turmoil.

Birthday then is a gift for a job well done.

 


Two, a birthday is an opportunity given to us so we can make it better. As we live our lives according to the different state of life to which we belong – as children, as adolescents, as adults – our witnessing are not always perfect, humans as we are. We are faced with different challenges that we find ourselves, sometimes, to be the cause of misunderstanding, fights, confusion, and disorder. We sometimes lose our sights to the values that we need to witness to develop human harmony. We fall and make compromises that jeopardize basic human rights, values, and principles that we are called to live for in accordance with the will of God, the giver of life. In every aspect of human interaction, we succumb to the temptation of corruption, deceit, lustful gratification, and others. We lost our direction. We lost our sight. We lost our purpose. We falter on our being humans and become agents of Beelzebul (Beelzebub). We stumble and allow evil to conquer good. Simply put, we fail as humans, as the embodiment of the life that was a gift from God.

Birthday is an opportunity to make things right. To be better persons. To be an improvement of who we were before. To be back to a life of fidelity to life, the gift of God.

                            

Birthday, then, is a celebration of a faithful life as well as a chance to redirect our way of living to the rightful meaning of our existence - to proclaim the glory of God in our lives.

God gives us life. The way we live is our gift to God.

“The glory of God is man fully alive.” (St. Ireneus)



Photo Acknowledgements:

  • http://www.wallpapersafari.com/birthday-background-wallpapers/
  • http://jennafischers.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-birthday-cards-homemade.html
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sna-AfSlOSY
  • https://www.westsidejourney.com/news/2019/3/12/celebration-of-life
  • http://shortquotes.cc/the-glory-of-god-is-man-fully-alive-full-quote/

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