CEBU REGIS LEADERSHIP Reflection Paper 3 MY PASSION by Leader Leonard Castañeda

My Passion

Passion is something you love doing. Unlike a job, where you need to be paid for you to do it, a passion is something you would pay to do, if necessary. Needless to say, you would do it, gladly, and for free.  It might not look like it, but my true passion is studying, preaching and teaching the Bible. Now, before you all fall off your chairs, let me share a screenshot from an old blog of mine circa 2007:

 

All my prior rantings have been about my issues with growing up illegitimate, my struggles through the different schools, my own rebellion against practically all manifestations of legitimate authority, but I've never really said what else happened.

I entered UP as a wide-eyed, Bible-quoting believer, but left it an angry atheist.  It would take 6 more years before a turnaround happened.

The year was 2004, and I was newly married, jobless and penniless. Granted, many people fall into depths of despair and there have an encounter with the Divine, but that was not something I wanted. I left my faith in 2003 because of two main reasons: I felt that those who were supposed to be my "brothers and sisters in Christ" were nothing more than goody two-shoes hypocrites whose commitment were good only on Sunday morning, and I felt that Christianity was intellectually indefensible. During that time, it was a sort of hobby for me to debate with self-professed Christians, and that often ended up with me poking holes at their faith and ridiculing them for lack of a coherent response, except to say that "in their hearts, they believed." That was ridiculous: one could sincerely believe in a Santa Claus in the North Pole, complete with reindeer and a flying sleigh, but sincerity does not turn wishful thinking into reality. Thus, despite the emotional tug, I wanted to make sure I wasn't rushing back into some childish default mode. I wanted to know if the Bible, Jesus and God were for real, and if I would not become the butt of jokes among my atheist friends for worshiping some myth.

Thankfully, I found an old volume of Josh McDowell's EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT in an second-hand bookstore in Cebu. Josh was a former atheist who studied Christianity in order to disprove it, only to end up becoming not only a committed Christian but also a dedicated apologist and itinerant preacher.

The book contained the argument of how the resurrection could be proven by historical-legal argument, much in the same manner that we now do not dispute that someone named Plato or Julius Caesar once existed. There was ample evidence that "something" happened, causing a committed band of Jews to risk life and limb, expulsion from their families, culture and religion and, eventually, face martyrdom in the name of some carpenter's son who claimed to be the Messiah the Jewish Scriptures hinted on.

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'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

10 - 11 - 2015

A blessed Sunday greetings to you Leader Siarina:

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THE LAST SAMURAI analysis vs Campbell's Monomyth and My Life

THE LAST SAMURAI – associated with CAMPBELL's ARCHETYPE & TO MY LEADERSHIP LIFE

Charmie D. Arribe, MD

AGSB ID#-R140047

1.       THE HERO IS INTRODUCED IN HIS ORDINARY WORLD

In 1876, U.S. Army captain Nathan Algren is traumatized by his participation in atrocities during the Indian Wars, and has become an embittered alcoholic. Algren is approached by his former commanding officer, Colonel Bagley, on behalf of Japanese businessman Omura, who wishes to hire distinguished US soldiers to train the Imperial Japanese Army to suppress a samurai rebellion, lead by Katsumoto Moritsugu. In exchange, Japan would ratify a lucrative trade agreement that would grant the U.S. exclusive rights to supply arms to the Japanese government.

2.       THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

Although Algren despises Bagley for having ordered atrocities during the Indian wars, he accepts the job for the money and sails to Japan. Most of the soldiers being trained are little more than inexperienced peasants and farmers.

3.       THE HERO IS RELUCTANT AT FIRST

The training is interrupted when the samurai rebels attack a railroad owned by Omura; Bagley orders the regiment to mobilize, overruling Algren's objection that the soldiers are not ready. Algren is proved correct, during a battle in a foggy forest in Yoshino Province, the undisciplined and intimidated soldiers panic and are quickly routed by the samurai horsemen. Algren kills several samurai with his revolver and saber but is eventually knocked from his horse. Algren desperately fights using a spear tipped flagstaff with a flag of a white tiger until he collapses from complete exhaustion. As he is about to be vanquished, he kills his would-be executioner with the staff's spear tip. As he is about to be killed, his ferocity and refusal to surrender, as well as the image of the white tiger on the flag he is fighting with, reminds Katsumoto of a recurring dream. As a result, Algren is spared and taken captive to the rebels' village in the mountains.