The moment I saw this caricature on my Facebook page (as posted by Dale Bacar), I knew that this will be reposted on this blog. It made me think for a moment. It really made total sense.
Correct me if I’m wrong but Jesus Christ never spoke about homosexuality during His stay on Earth.
I wish everyone a Happy Easter Sunday! Rejoice, Christ has risen!
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Maundy Thursday is business as usual at the office! There are no reduction on the number of agents on the floor. To think that it's 10:46AM in the US East Coast right now, it's business as usual here at the office.
Well, what am I expecting? The US is not a pre-dominantly Catholic nation like the Philippines, Italy, Spain or Latin America. In my 5 years of being a call center agent, the only day that the number of calls reduced significantly is Thanksgiving. It's America's holiest day, followed by New Year, Christmas, and Independence Day.
That's the reason why I'm stuck here at my desk on a Maundy Thursday instead of doing a Visita Iglesia or an Alay-Lakad to Antipolo from Pasig City. That's also the reason why I'm receiving the same number of calls (frequency) just like any other day. I can't feel the spirit of Holy Week.
Before I worked for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, I used to stay at home the whole Thursday and Friday of the Holy Week. I watch Bible series videos or simply watch Bible-related shows on TV. I love watching shows about the Holy Land a.k.a. Israel. It remains my dream destination.
I'm not a devout Catholic but during Holy Week, I'm interested with the Passion Story, though I haven't watched "The Passion of Christ" yet. I'm also interested with TV series tracing the historical Jesus, movies like "Da Vinci Code", and also, reading Wikipedia articles about the Templar Knights, Holy Grail and Crusades.
I've also read that comic strip/manga that deals with What If story about Christ and Buddha living in today's society. I've also seen that video game about Bible characters having powers and fighting each other like the Street Fighter video game.
Thank God my customer stayed with me during the download time of his software. That's around 30 minutes of being idle because I asked him to do something else while we are
downloading the software and just get my attention once it's done downloading. This gives me time to reflect who Jesus is for me.
This is a very debatable topic, about the nature of Christ and all, but here's what I believe. I believe Jesus is the Son of God that replaces the Old Testament practice of sacrificing a lamb to take away the sins of the person offering the sacrifice. I believe that we need to acknowledge the fact that we can't save ourselves from sin and that we needed Christ to redeem us from sin.
I also believe that our good deeds can't save us alone. We still need to have faith in Christ, and we should do our best not to sin. I also believe that he's the ultimate Judge who will judge our actions on this world while we're still here.
I hope, when the day comes that I'll finally meet Him, he'll forgive all my transgression and accept me in His Kingdom, along with my love ones.
Being in the call center industry for more than 5 years now, I haven't participated in the Holy Week celebration. First, we usually have work schedule during Holy Week. There is no holiday in the call center industry. It's work 24x7x365.
I don't experience going home to our province (Bulacan) and observe the celebration. I don't participate in the Exodus to the provinces. It's true with other major holidays in the Philippines (like All Saint's Day).
By the way, I just arrived from work by the way, so in a few minutes, I'll make love to my bed. I'll probably wake up around 3pm, have my lunch and chat with my partner Glenn. He would also work during Holy Week.
Tomorrow, we'll go to Ternate, Cavite to take some vacation. Initially, it was set to Saturday but something happened along the way and it's now set for tomorrow. Hopefully, everything works fine. We'll meet at Shaw Boulevard (I'll be coming from Bonifacio Global City and he'll be coming from QC) and then ride a bus going to Cavite.
My shift tonight starts 10PM until 7am tomorrow (Good Friday). Since it's a legal holiday, we'll be paid additional 100%. That's the advantage of working in the call center industry. If your schedule falls on a regular holiday, you really have to work.
The disadvantage of this would be during Christmas and New Year where we wanted to be at home. In the past 5 years, I've been spending New Year's Eve at the office. Why? December 31 is a Special Holiday (Last Day of the Year) and January 1 is a Regular Holiday. So I'll hit two holidays on one shift.
Not to mention that there is no traffic during holidays, which makes going to work a pleasurable thing. Our company also provides some free meals during these occasions.
Today, since it is Maundy Thursday, they've converted our Recruitment Area into a Prayer Room. There are also other activities in the office starting tonight's shift in observance of the Holy Week. So we're not truly left out during holidays. We're just celebrating it at work, with extra pay.
What are your plans for today and tomorrow? How do you celebrate Holy Week?
Source of picture here.
