Let Us All Now Follow Jesus’ Pronouncement to “DENY THYSELF”

That “self” in the biblical pronouncement by Jesus Christ Himself to be outrightly “denied” is NEVER our true self as that “little me” is a fictitious one. Yet, such narrative of one’s self, rooted in one’s ego, is the one that is being collectively followed without let-up that is intensely reigning in the mindset of humanity, now suffering from collective insanity. That egoic self has transformed the homo sapiens into the most flawed of all of God’s creation. It has been the opinion of great contemporaneous spiritual leaders that the species called the Homo Sapiens (human being) is the most flawed of all of God’s creation having killed its own kind of about 200 million human beings in one century alone (19th hundred) out of two world wars, the cleansing of Hitler and Pol Pot, Stalinism, Maoism and the Vietnam War, among others. Humanity continues to suffer from collective insanity advancing unbridled materialism and consumerism amidst spiritual denigration where the instant pursuit of wealth, fame and power is the priority based on a flawed dictum called “survival of the fittest.” Worse, the homo sapiens has put the earth in a cataclysmic state as the present development paradigm is sacrificing mother Earth to the altar of greed and power.

That egoic self that is giving so much veneration to the profit motive, to the instant pursuit of wealth, fame and power has already captured the mindset of all governments, all institutions, all religions and all universities. That “little me” is so self-centered, focusing on brandishing narratives on how great the egoic leaders are, how great are their beliefs and ideologies and are willing to kill those whose beliefs are different from theirs. Don’t you know that historically, wars came about because of opposing religious belief, i.e.,” my religion is right and yours is false, so I have to kill you.”

That fictitious self is even killing mother earth. Even former US President Donald Trump was so egoic that he categorically is a climate change denier himself. Why is this so? Well, the US 19 fossil fuel corporations are profiting some 16 trillion dollars annually or 10 million dollars every minute out of the non-stop usage of coal and fossil fuels. Noam Chomsky, described by New York Times as “the most important intellectual alive, described that the plight of human civilization as “racing towards the precipice.” The doomsday clock of Mother Earth was set to at two and a half minutes before midnight. The cause: the disbelief in the scientific consensus over climate change by all governments, the mainstream media and religious groups.” Indeed, the conscious refusal of the dominant players –governments, corporations and the media – to act with purpose helps to answer the questions, “where is the human outcry for earth’s life-support? Why have we failed to seize control of our survival?” That veneration to that self is not being denied, contrary to Christ’s teaching.

Pope Francis in his Encyclical Letter – which was back by al the major faiths – referred to climate change as “a sin against God.” Recently, Queen Elizabeth was so furious blaming governments’ inaction against climate change stating that “there should be legal action against governments for the crime of omission to protect the right to life of their populations. Apparent is the ongoing political and media efforts to suppress climate change as a crisis: by denial, by underreporting solutions to it.”

Indeed, it is an unprecedented crime against humanity as the contemporaneous development paradigm called neo-liberal capitalism being advanced by corporate globalization continuously sacrifices Mother Earth and humanity to the altar of greed and profit. We are now in the 23rd year of the 21st century but we do not know whether we will reach the 22nd century which is only 77 years from now. Every day, a thousand hectares of the 386-meter high iceberg are melting in the Arctic and the Antarctic that is giving rise to the ocean level. The Philippines now has some 7,100 islands but according to environmentalists, there will just be 3,000 islands fifty years from now. Some 100 species of flora and fauna are becoming extinct everyday due to climate change as billions have already become extinct. This is especially true in our country which has been considered by FAO as the richest on earth with regards to biodiversity but have been erased from the