The New Fulfills The Old.

We just came from the hospital where tatay had a cataract operation. It was supposed to have lasted only fifteen minutes but because the cataract was already over ripe, it had changed from gelatinous to hard. In the process, it needed more time to remove and clean the eye. Anaesthesia was not anymore injected but merely applied on top. The doctor said that there were no couture's done but a small hole was made to remove the cataract and place the lens. That hole would heal in time by itself! (The wonder of the human body!) After forty five minutes, everything was done. Tatay was provided with a set of a sporty eyeglasses in order to protect the eye. During sleep, a hard plastic covering will be taped over the operated eye so that it will not be harmed. Some medicines were prescribed by the doctor (Dr. Leo Mangubat - he was very good!) will be applied for some days to completely heal the eye. After giving the post-operation orders and payment of the bills, tatay was out of the hospital

Science and technology had indeed gone a long way. I still remember my lola Celis (tatay's mother) also underwent the same operation. Back then (during the '70's) the patient need to undergo a more complex procedure, longer time of operation, more time for recovery in the hospital, and a lot of gauze's and plasters and medicines. Some amount of pain would also be experienced. Today, pain is almost zero. Many times after the operation I asked tatay if there are pains. He said there were none. Indeed, such procedures are easy these days. Procedures are more simple. If there is anything that changed, it was just the cost. They are more expensive now. But it is all worth it. Health, together with time, had been recognized as wealth. Maybe be more important than money.

But we must never forget that the progress of today is connected and dependent on the progress of the past. Present technologies could not have been achieved if not for the discoveries and mistakes (yes....including them!) of yesterday. Scientists would admit and testify to that. Most of their experiments were aided and influenced if not based on the achievements and  failures of their predecessors. The past is not only there to haunt us but specially to learn from. In fact, they are our best teachers and guides.

This should give us a lesson on humility regarding our achievements as an individual and a society. While we have accepted the terms "old", "passe", "traditional", and even "conservative", to name some, to refer to things of the past and go as far as judging the past as inferior and useless (which to some degree is true), we sometimes miss if not totally ignore the fact that the "new", "modern", "updated", "hi-tech", and "latest", came and were influenced by them.

"The old is bad and the new is good." Avoiding these absolutes will help us appreciate things, (past, present or future) better, according to their true worth, i.e. they all belong to the whole. They constitute the whole. The world can never be without a past, a present, or a future. The world can never be without the old, the new, and the things to come. In the same way, a person or a society can not be only a present or be constituted by the modern. We are made up of all our experiences, past, present and future.

(The Old Testament was the promises of God to His People. The New Testament was the fulfillment of all these promises. It was New because of the Old. It was Old because of the New. The Old and the New converge in Jesus Christ. He was there from the beginning. He is there in the present. He will be there till the end of time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The past, present and future unite in Jesus. In the Catholic faith, we recognize the old and the new as part of whole plan of God. Everything belongs and is a part of God's plan of salvation.)