Gazing at the Poor King

           Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) just issued a pastoral message that opens 2015 as the Year of the Poor on the First Sunday of Advent. As the Year of the Laity ends, the Philippine Church moves on with its 9-year plan towards 2021 in preparing the faithful for the 500 years commemoration of the Christianization of our country.

          The message is accompanied by an insightful logo: two disciples gazing at the crucified Jesus; theirs is a loving look. The message is a disturbing evaluation of the scandalous situation of our land and challenges our people, both the powerful and the powerless; the pastors and the faithful, to a profound self-examination. What touched me in this letter is the realization that the poorest of the poor is Jesus Christ himself! “Jesus hangs from his Cross stripped of his clothes, his dignity, his possession, his power, his strength.” The greatest pain he felt was the thought that even God, His Father, had abandoned him at the lowest point of his life: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:45). No one can be much poorer.

At the opening of the Year of the Poor, our catholic leaders would like us to reflect on poverty in the context of our faith in Jesus. Moreover we are to see Jesus in the poor and work towards becoming a poor Church for the poor. Pope Francis affirms that this is “how God works.” He does not reveal himself cloaked in worldly power and wealth but rather in weakness and poverty. Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but, as St. Paul says "that by his poverty you might become rich."

We see poverty in the face every day. A child begs. Homeless people sleep in street corners. Old women sell candles to earn few centavos. Entire families live in shanties beside creeks and in the slums. The sight is common. We think it is normal that it does not unsettle us anymore. We no longer cry at the news when a child is sick and dies for lack of medicine. We are no longer saddened when a person has nothing to eat. Government statistics tells us that out of 100 million Filipinos, 29 million live below the poverty line. Yet we don’t find this alarming. Is it an indication that we are becoming heart-less?  Have we become desensitized and “manhid” to the cries and pains of poor? Or we simply shrug the thought and say: “we’re not responsible for them anyway.”

Again Pope Francis reflects: “So what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? It is his way of loving us, his way of being our neighbor, just as the Good Samaritan was neighbor to the man left half dead by the side of the road (cf. Lk 10:25ff ). What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of his love.”

In this Year of the Poor we are challenged by Jesus to imitate his love by becoming neighbors to one another. It is a love that teaches us to be sensitive towards the poor and experience conversion in the way we see them. We are not simply to become “good Samaritans” to so many helpless individuals in society. More than just statistics, we should see them as our brothers and sisters, our “kapamilya” in Jesus. The poor are not just people to whom we can give something. They are disguises of Jesus for whom we can share God’s love concretely.

In Calvary the disfigured face of Jesus veiled his real identity. The spectators were gazing at the sight of a poor and powerless King. His resurrection revealed the splendor of his glory. But the dramatic “last judgment” of Mt 25:31-46 will finally show His full majesty when He will separate the goats and the sheep on the criterion of love. In the end, we will be judge by the measure of our love.

I know two sisters who are identical twins. Both are very much the same in looks and in ways. What distinguishes them is their health. One had a kidney malfunction several years ago. Instead of having dialysis, the healthier sister donated one of her kidneys to her twin. Today both continue to live their normal lives. Each realizes they need to care for each other. Each realizes they need to share both blessings and sufferings. Both realize they are responsible for each other.

Unless we realize we are all brothers and sisters, we will never create human solidarity. It is only by love that we can swim against a throwaway culture and become true neighbors for each other. We need to look at Jesus!

One Beautiful Life

       My friend Cheryl invited me to celebrate the funeral mass of her high school classmate from St. Theresa’s College. It was difficult to refuse a divine function; for to pray for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy. As I was rushing through A.S. Fortuna Street towards Rolling Hills amidst a crazy Saturday afternoon traffic, my mind was also racing through a sermon outline I needed to deliver. The sad thing was, I had no personal knowledge of Farah Noel Tan. She was then a total stranger to me. I was praying to the Holy Spirit for the grace to give me the words of faith and comfort that the grieving family needed in such a circumstance.

I was given scant background information of her death. She actually succumbed to ovarian cancer at a young age of 41 leaving a grieving husband and two kids. But I was not prepared at the end of the Eucharistic Celebration to have the opportunity to know her story and have a glimpse into some of the details of her amazing life. I came to perform a function; I went home enriched after hearing her struggles, her courage and the kindness of her soul. When Marlon, her husband, and other friends started to narrate inspiring moment of her short life, I was given a crash-course of the ups and downs of family life. Each person is really a miracle!

Marlon revealed that his family really prayed for Farah’s healing. It was devastating to see her gone so soon as if God had turned a deaf ear to their plea. But he also saw “the hand of God” in the support, the presence and the love of friends and relatives in their lowest moment. The brother shared a coincidence of taking her picture with a “halo.” It was his way of focusing not so much “the loss” but having gained an “angel in heaven.” Another friend reminisced Farah’s natural capacity to love her friends just as they are. The depth of her love goes beyond her death which her fragile body could not contain. From these insights, it dawned on me how beautiful a death can be marked by a life of intense love and goodness.

Jesus, in this Sunday’s Gospel, compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He says to all the invited guests: Come to the feast! I could imagine God preparing a banquet for Farah and inviting her with a big smile: “Share the joy of your Master!”

It is only by faith that allows us to visualize this. Jesus calls this beatitude or real happiness even in the midst of sorrow. It may seem that everything in our society is calculated for the attainment of a good life. We are led to believe that happiness has a price. Yet we know there are many things money cannot buy! Through the beatitudes Jesus teaches us how to ground our life with a strong foundation. The life patterned after the beatitude can only be developed through the instrumentality of the family. In order to promote the good of every individual it takes a family support to nourish and build up every member. A beautiful life can never be had without the family. Indeed it is in the family where prayer is taught and caught; where God is loved and lived.

Showing a deep concern for the care of modern families, Pope Francis called for an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops this week. The global gathering of Church leaders which invited married couples and experts is meant to discuss the “pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization.” Through this Synod, the Church renews its commitment to journey with families and married couples because it sees marriage as a place of growth of the human person.

I was not able to join the family and friends of Farah in her interment. But that short experience of a beautiful life was enough to leave a lasting mark in my soul. Requiescat in pace!