The bald pep squad of the University of the Philippines claimed their
third straight crown at the 2012 UAAP Cheerdance Competition at the Mall of
Asia Arena recently before an almost 20,000 crowd. In contrast to their flashy
Madonna-inspired routine last year, they came garbed simply with nude-toned
unitards to honor the “oblation symbol” of their university. They danced to the
theme of freedom and equality.
Showing
a lot of jumps, tumblings and tosses, the 8th-time champions moved
with ease and confidence in a near perfect technically tough performance
highlighted by three pyramid formations. Despite a fall by one of the dancers
in the final stunt, they still grabbed the judges' overall approval. It was a
visual feast of proficiency and creativity executing stunts of high degree of
difficulty.
Watching
their performance in Youtube, it left me awed. The dancers, I presume, were
ordinary university students whose only edge with the other contestants was
long term preparation. Yet they looked like professional gymnasts who
achieved great dexterity of movements. The performance of the entire squad was
all about trust in one another. It was about surrender. They were so brave to
surrender even their hair for consistency of purpose especially the ladies.
This is what faith is all about.
At
the start of the school year, I gave a leadership training seminar to a group
of student leaders. One of our activities is the “trust fall.” It’s a
trust-building exercise I conducted to the group in which each person allows
himself to fall on an elevated position relying on the other members of the
group to catch him. I thought it would just be a routine where everybody would
go through the exercise. But as it turned out, one was too scared to fall. He
tried twice but in both instances he had to cut corners. It dawned on me that
faith, for some, is something difficult. They needed to surrender. It’s a
trust-fall in the arms of a loving group.
Faith is an act
of total surrender of ourselves in the arms of a loving God.
In October last year,
Pope Benedict the XVI wrote an apostolic letter “Porta Fidei” (The Door of
Faith) to usher the Year of Faith. It will start on October 11, 2012 and
conclude on the solemnity of Christ the King on November 24, 2013. The opening
will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council as well as the 20th anniversary of the publication
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. During the Year of Faith, Catholics
are invited to rediscover and deepen their faith-journey in their “conscious
and vigorous adherence to the Gospel.”
In his letter, the
Holy Father observes that times have really changed. There was a time when
faith was culturally accepted by society and its values were inspired by it. This
is no longer true today. Society is affected by a profound crisis of faith.
There is now a divorce in faith and culture that makes its practice even
difficult. Many even consider faith as a private matter. Thus he offers a
challenge by reminding us that faith has a social responsibility. There is the
need to make a public profession of
faith. He exhorts us that “it is the love of Christ that fills our
hearts and impels us to evangelize.” Hence the challenge is to be made concrete
by a “need for a stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization.” The Year
of Faith is an opportunity for Catholics to experience a conversion of heart
and deepen their personal attachment to Jesus.
The Visayan-proto
martyr Pedro Calungsod will be one of the icons of the Year of Faith. The
Church presents him to us especially to all young Filipino as a model of faith
and courageous witness despite the hardships of Christian living. Like our new
saint, we are invited to appreciate our faith, receive it with love and practice
it with courage. In the midst of the tosses and tumbles of life, the Christian
is asked to make a stand. For if faith is a rose, this year, we are asked to
fertilize it with God’s Word and water it with charity so that it blooms with
greater fragrance.
(This article appears in the Faith
Section of Cebu Daily News – September30, 2012)
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