CLEAN AND BEAUTIFUL

Tuesday of the Twentieth Year in Ordinary Time
Mt 23:23-26

We, Filipinos, are said to be a people overly conscious about cleanliness. Advertisements in television, radio and print media clearly support this impression on us. One does not need the help of a professional survey agency to conclude that advertisements on bath soap, hair shampoo and conditioner, laundry soap, detergents, oral sanitation and woman’s personal hygiene top the list of what we see on television, hear on the radio, and read in magazines and in the dailies. Many take a bath three times a day. Many hand wash their laundry because they say washing machines do not clean well. And still many spend a fortune for cosmetics, including cosmetic surgery. We do not want to be clean only; we also want to be beautiful or, at least, presentable. The above observation does not include yet our great concern with keeping our homes, offices, and surroundings clean. Consumer products that offer answers and help to this concern likewise flood the mass media. Cleanliness is simply our obsession. It is therefore understandable why we were highly indignant against an American actress who came to shoot a film in the country and left saying our country is a haven of cockroaches (I forgot the name of that actress, but not her ungrateful regard for her hospitable host). There is, of course, nothing wrong about maintaining cleanliness, personal or otherwise. Being clean and beautiful is likewise not out of order but is very much praiseworthy. But are we really clean? Are we really beautiful? Our elections are always marred with fraud – even if not massive as post-election reports often say – not only because candidates cheat but because many among us sell their votes. Are we clean? Countless of our people are living in shanties while a handful have tracks of land for their golf courses. Are we beautiful? We cry for justice on behalf of victims of human rights violation but not a few violate the rights of the unborn even as abortion is presently illegal in the Philippines and always a grave sin in the Catholic Church. Are we clean? We are famous for our lavish fiestas but many of our people are so poor that all they can feast on are the leftovers from the table of the rich which are even being sold after re-cooked. Are we beautiful? Our churches are jam packed on Sundays but so are beerhouses where lewd shows are performed. Are we clean? We are known for being the one Christian nation in the Far East but we are also among the top ten most corrupt countries in the world. Are we beautiful? Clean, beautiful, who? We? Would Jesus not condemn us as He does to the scribes and the Pharisees in the Gospel today? Are we not blind guides too? When we, as Filipinos, go to do mission in lands yet to be evangelized, we say, “Come and become like us!” The people we evangelize may well scoff at us and say, “What, become like you? We are better off without you and your message. Blind guides!”