GOD SPEAKS TO THE PHILIPPINES TODAY (A Special Homily on the Recent National Crisis)
8th Sunday in the Ordinary Time
Hos 2:16,17,21-22/Mk 2,18-22
Speaking about politics is not the same as politicking. Reflecting on politics in the light of Scripture is not politicking; espousing an ideology and wooing people’s support for a political office is. It is the Church’s mandate to permeate every human affair – and politics is a human affair – with the Gospel of Christ. In accomplishing this mandate, the Church purifies, with the value and power of the Gospel of Christ, elements found in human concerns even as she allows the same human concerns to challenge the Gospel message in a particular social, cultural, economic, and political milieu. With this understanding, this homily is not politicking, but a reflection on the political crisis that relentlessly plagues us as a nation. I am a theologian, not a politician. Thus, it is only in the light of the Word of God that this homily is made and hereby preached today.
Indeed the Word of God speaks to us, Filipinos, in particular today. It seems that we are being singled out among many nations of the civilized world and convicted by the Word of God today. The message of the Lord for us is very direct and disturbing. Unless we heed it and live by it, there is no end that awaits us as a nation but utter destruction. Even as now, the so called “gains” of the EDSA ’86 bloodless revolution, that won for our selves self-respect and the admiration of the community of nations, are gradually but steadily being lost. We did indeed give the world a precious gift, but we are obviously squandering the same gift. People Power is our broken promise to humanity, and, needless to say, to God and to our selves as well.
Why is this so? There are three reasons.
First, People Power seems to be equated by many as a mere change in the leadership of this nation. There was a change in the political leadership, from a dictatorial regime to democratic governance, but the transformation of our values, paradigms, and attitudes, as a people, has yet to be seen because either it has not been given much thought or much thought has not been translated into sincere action. It makes us wonder whether when the shouts, “Tama na! Sobra na! Palitan na!”, were heard from EDSA in 1986, they really meant, “Tama na! Sobra na! Palitan na! KAMI NAMAN!” Thus, while a strong ruler, tainted with cronyism and compromised integrity, left the palace hurriedly, a new set of cronies and a freshly made-up but the same face of compromised integrity simply came in. Rightly, our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, questioned without seeing EDSA Uno: “?Para que la libertad si los esclavos de hoy seran los tiranos de manaña?” (“What is freedom for if the slaves of today will become the tyrants of tomorrow?”)
Second, in 1986 we proved, perhaps not so much to the world but to our selves, that we were ready to die for our country. I was there. I know the experience first hand. I was a young seminarian in front of the tanks. People Power shaped not only my identity as a Filipino but my priestly ministry as well. There was no question, we were all ready to die for this nation, but we seem to have forgotten to live for it. It was easier to die for the country in 1986 and be considered a hero. It is much difficult to live for the same country after 1986 and be its citizen. Dying for one’s motherland is a one-time event and frees us totally from the hardships of life, but to live for her each day in the midst of the burdens and challenges that confront us today is more than twice or thrice difficult. To live for our country necessarily demands from us sacrifices, and the higher we are in the ladder, the greater the sacrifice that is required of us. If we have the supreme power, the supreme sacrifice is the call we must answer.
Third, the bloodless revolution of 1986 at EDSA is People Power. The heroes of EDSA were the whole people and not only a few celebrated personalities. The heroes of EDSA were the whole nation united in God with the maternal protection of the Blessed Mother. We were a people in prayer together. We were a people sacrificing together. Because we were together in prayer and sacrifice, God won the battle not only for us but also through us. The so called “gains” of EDSA Uno were the gains of the people, many of whom were easily and wantonly categorized as the “masses”. People Power was more than just a widow in yellow, a prelate in red, or political personalities in various colors. People Power is the power of the people in prayer. It is the power of a praying people. It is the power of God.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the People Power Revolution of 1986. For someone like me who was actually there when it happened, the past two days were very sad days. I am but one Filipino priests among many, but like many of you, I stood there before tanks and armed soldiers and put my life on the line for the freedom we know enjoy. For many, the past two days (and still counting) were very frightening days; frightening not only for those who gathered again at EDSA Shrine and at the Ninoy Aquino monument in Ayala, but also for those who were holed in inside their palatial fortresses. For all of us, there was confusion. We knew the spirit of EDSA was being violated and symptoms of our society’s chronic disease were clearly emerging. Remembering EDSA ’86 brought us back, literally or symbolically, to EDSA, but the otherwise avenue of our pride and freedom has changed. EDSA has become a wilderness.
Wilderness is a dry place. It is a place of thirst. Twenty years after EDSA Uno, we continue to thirst for peace, for truth, for better lives, and for moral governance.
Wilderness is an environment of deafening silence. Twenty years after EDSA Uno, the celebrations were cancelled and we could not gather together in peace, not because we refused to celebrate EDSA ’86 but because we were silenced by people who were not even there when EDSA Uno happened.
Wilderness is a condition where perennial threat to life is present. The twentieth year of EDSA Uno was marked by violent dispersals of people, warrant less arrest of the oppositionists, and military take-over of a publishing house critical of the government. Suddenly, vestiges of the former martial rule undeniably re-emerged, causing goose bumps to many who lived through the horrors of P.D. 1081.
People Power Revolution was our gift to the world, but have we given the world a wilderness as a gift? I am not shy to confess that I am moved to tears as I tell you this. We have given the world a gift, but we were the first to have squandered it. Yes, we pray for a strong republic because the republic seemed to be stronger twenty years ago when we had our one shining moment through People Power.
People Power is like the new wine mentioned in the Gospel today. It is a new wine that is continuously wasted because the wineskins that hold it remain old. New wine, as Jesus tells us today, requires new wineskins. People Power demands the change of heart, the conversion of lives, the transformation of people. Otherwise, putting the new wine that is People Power into old wineskins will burst the wineskins and waste the wine, as what we see is happening to our dear Philippines.
Almost like coming from the grave, we hear the voice of our former Archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin, calling us not for another People Power perhaps but for the long delayed transformation of our hearts. In his inaugural address as the then new Archbishop of Manila, the late Cardinal, of blessed memory, called for a revolution of the heart, a revolution of love. This was his first call even before he called us to go to EDSA in 1986. We seemed to have forgotten the first call in the euphoria of the second.
The Lord speaks to us, Filipinos, in particular today through the prophet Hosea in the First Reading: “Come to me into the wilderness, and there I will speak to your heart.” If EDSA indeed has become our wilderness, it remains for us a call from God to turn to Him that He may heal our land. Yes, there is hope, as our present Archbishop, Cardinal-elect Gaudencio Rosales, said yesterday. Let us not be afraid of our wilderness. Let us face it. Let us go through it together and with the Lord. And let us come out of it as new wineskins for the new wine He offers the world through us.
We do not have to go to EDSA now. There is people power fatigue already. What we must do is to go deeper into our hearts to purge it of all selfishness, lies, and violence. Let us not deceive our selves; we know that no amount of Presidential Proclamations, no amount of distributing houses to disgruntled soldiers, no amount of raising the wages of government workers, no amount of diverting the people’s attention to other validly important issues, no amount of assuring business men that there is no other best person to lead this country except the one that asserts so for the self, no amount of shaking hands in malls whether in Taguig or elsewhere, will bring peace and order in our land. There is a solution to the crisis we face, and it begins with the change of our hearts that manifests itself in our being God-fearing, in our love for one another, in our care for nature, in our preservation of moral integrity, and in our respect for the laws of the land, even that which is as minute as a traffic rule.
It is quite dangerous to preach homilies like this today. The phrase “inciting to sedition” has been relativized. But God must be the first to be picked up today for questioning because it is He who now speaks despite Presidential Proclamation 1017. Will they arrest Him today?
Hos 2:16,17,21-22/Mk 2,18-22
Speaking about politics is not the same as politicking. Reflecting on politics in the light of Scripture is not politicking; espousing an ideology and wooing people’s support for a political office is. It is the Church’s mandate to permeate every human affair – and politics is a human affair – with the Gospel of Christ. In accomplishing this mandate, the Church purifies, with the value and power of the Gospel of Christ, elements found in human concerns even as she allows the same human concerns to challenge the Gospel message in a particular social, cultural, economic, and political milieu. With this understanding, this homily is not politicking, but a reflection on the political crisis that relentlessly plagues us as a nation. I am a theologian, not a politician. Thus, it is only in the light of the Word of God that this homily is made and hereby preached today.
Indeed the Word of God speaks to us, Filipinos, in particular today. It seems that we are being singled out among many nations of the civilized world and convicted by the Word of God today. The message of the Lord for us is very direct and disturbing. Unless we heed it and live by it, there is no end that awaits us as a nation but utter destruction. Even as now, the so called “gains” of the EDSA ’86 bloodless revolution, that won for our selves self-respect and the admiration of the community of nations, are gradually but steadily being lost. We did indeed give the world a precious gift, but we are obviously squandering the same gift. People Power is our broken promise to humanity, and, needless to say, to God and to our selves as well.
Why is this so? There are three reasons.
First, People Power seems to be equated by many as a mere change in the leadership of this nation. There was a change in the political leadership, from a dictatorial regime to democratic governance, but the transformation of our values, paradigms, and attitudes, as a people, has yet to be seen because either it has not been given much thought or much thought has not been translated into sincere action. It makes us wonder whether when the shouts, “Tama na! Sobra na! Palitan na!”, were heard from EDSA in 1986, they really meant, “Tama na! Sobra na! Palitan na! KAMI NAMAN!” Thus, while a strong ruler, tainted with cronyism and compromised integrity, left the palace hurriedly, a new set of cronies and a freshly made-up but the same face of compromised integrity simply came in. Rightly, our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, questioned without seeing EDSA Uno: “?Para que la libertad si los esclavos de hoy seran los tiranos de manaña?” (“What is freedom for if the slaves of today will become the tyrants of tomorrow?”)
Second, in 1986 we proved, perhaps not so much to the world but to our selves, that we were ready to die for our country. I was there. I know the experience first hand. I was a young seminarian in front of the tanks. People Power shaped not only my identity as a Filipino but my priestly ministry as well. There was no question, we were all ready to die for this nation, but we seem to have forgotten to live for it. It was easier to die for the country in 1986 and be considered a hero. It is much difficult to live for the same country after 1986 and be its citizen. Dying for one’s motherland is a one-time event and frees us totally from the hardships of life, but to live for her each day in the midst of the burdens and challenges that confront us today is more than twice or thrice difficult. To live for our country necessarily demands from us sacrifices, and the higher we are in the ladder, the greater the sacrifice that is required of us. If we have the supreme power, the supreme sacrifice is the call we must answer.
Third, the bloodless revolution of 1986 at EDSA is People Power. The heroes of EDSA were the whole people and not only a few celebrated personalities. The heroes of EDSA were the whole nation united in God with the maternal protection of the Blessed Mother. We were a people in prayer together. We were a people sacrificing together. Because we were together in prayer and sacrifice, God won the battle not only for us but also through us. The so called “gains” of EDSA Uno were the gains of the people, many of whom were easily and wantonly categorized as the “masses”. People Power was more than just a widow in yellow, a prelate in red, or political personalities in various colors. People Power is the power of the people in prayer. It is the power of a praying people. It is the power of God.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the People Power Revolution of 1986. For someone like me who was actually there when it happened, the past two days were very sad days. I am but one Filipino priests among many, but like many of you, I stood there before tanks and armed soldiers and put my life on the line for the freedom we know enjoy. For many, the past two days (and still counting) were very frightening days; frightening not only for those who gathered again at EDSA Shrine and at the Ninoy Aquino monument in Ayala, but also for those who were holed in inside their palatial fortresses. For all of us, there was confusion. We knew the spirit of EDSA was being violated and symptoms of our society’s chronic disease were clearly emerging. Remembering EDSA ’86 brought us back, literally or symbolically, to EDSA, but the otherwise avenue of our pride and freedom has changed. EDSA has become a wilderness.
Wilderness is a dry place. It is a place of thirst. Twenty years after EDSA Uno, we continue to thirst for peace, for truth, for better lives, and for moral governance.
Wilderness is an environment of deafening silence. Twenty years after EDSA Uno, the celebrations were cancelled and we could not gather together in peace, not because we refused to celebrate EDSA ’86 but because we were silenced by people who were not even there when EDSA Uno happened.
Wilderness is a condition where perennial threat to life is present. The twentieth year of EDSA Uno was marked by violent dispersals of people, warrant less arrest of the oppositionists, and military take-over of a publishing house critical of the government. Suddenly, vestiges of the former martial rule undeniably re-emerged, causing goose bumps to many who lived through the horrors of P.D. 1081.
People Power Revolution was our gift to the world, but have we given the world a wilderness as a gift? I am not shy to confess that I am moved to tears as I tell you this. We have given the world a gift, but we were the first to have squandered it. Yes, we pray for a strong republic because the republic seemed to be stronger twenty years ago when we had our one shining moment through People Power.
People Power is like the new wine mentioned in the Gospel today. It is a new wine that is continuously wasted because the wineskins that hold it remain old. New wine, as Jesus tells us today, requires new wineskins. People Power demands the change of heart, the conversion of lives, the transformation of people. Otherwise, putting the new wine that is People Power into old wineskins will burst the wineskins and waste the wine, as what we see is happening to our dear Philippines.
Almost like coming from the grave, we hear the voice of our former Archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin, calling us not for another People Power perhaps but for the long delayed transformation of our hearts. In his inaugural address as the then new Archbishop of Manila, the late Cardinal, of blessed memory, called for a revolution of the heart, a revolution of love. This was his first call even before he called us to go to EDSA in 1986. We seemed to have forgotten the first call in the euphoria of the second.
The Lord speaks to us, Filipinos, in particular today through the prophet Hosea in the First Reading: “Come to me into the wilderness, and there I will speak to your heart.” If EDSA indeed has become our wilderness, it remains for us a call from God to turn to Him that He may heal our land. Yes, there is hope, as our present Archbishop, Cardinal-elect Gaudencio Rosales, said yesterday. Let us not be afraid of our wilderness. Let us face it. Let us go through it together and with the Lord. And let us come out of it as new wineskins for the new wine He offers the world through us.
We do not have to go to EDSA now. There is people power fatigue already. What we must do is to go deeper into our hearts to purge it of all selfishness, lies, and violence. Let us not deceive our selves; we know that no amount of Presidential Proclamations, no amount of distributing houses to disgruntled soldiers, no amount of raising the wages of government workers, no amount of diverting the people’s attention to other validly important issues, no amount of assuring business men that there is no other best person to lead this country except the one that asserts so for the self, no amount of shaking hands in malls whether in Taguig or elsewhere, will bring peace and order in our land. There is a solution to the crisis we face, and it begins with the change of our hearts that manifests itself in our being God-fearing, in our love for one another, in our care for nature, in our preservation of moral integrity, and in our respect for the laws of the land, even that which is as minute as a traffic rule.
It is quite dangerous to preach homilies like this today. The phrase “inciting to sedition” has been relativized. But God must be the first to be picked up today for questioning because it is He who now speaks despite Presidential Proclamation 1017. Will they arrest Him today?
posted by Fr. Bobby @ 4:00 PM
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