Many of us would certainly find ourselves worrying about tomorrow, about our future especially when we are already experiencing difficulties today. This is how we would make plans for our dreams for ourselves and for our families because we want a future that is secured.
However, aside from these worries, we could also experience worries at home, at school, at our workplaces and even with our relationships. And when these worries become overwhelming for us, they affect our relationships. In addition, when we experience failures in our dreams or in our relationships that the worries become more intense.
Yet, in today’s Gospel, Jesus comforts us by reminding us, “do not worry about tomorrow, do not worry about your life.” Jesus first reminded his disciples who at that times became worried on what they would have and on how their future be like by following the Lord. St. Matthew, the author of this Gospel, wrote this story to also remind the early Christian Community during his time, not to worry too much with material things in life.
This is an invitation to be more trusting in God, in His divine providence. God, indeed, takes care of everything even the smallest creature on earth, how much more to us who are all dear to the Lord. God takes care for us.
Thus, we embrace today and claim this comfort from the Lord, not to worry too much, but to be more trusting in God and in his ways of doing good and wonderful things for us. This also teaches us to be more trusting with people around us, those who work with us and those who accompany us in this journey of life. Kabay pa.
What do you see? What attracts and catches your eye? Beauty and goodness? Or ugliness and failures? Our eyes are usually attracted and caught up by what is already hidden deep within our heart (spiritually speaking), where our emotions and deep thoughts are found. These emotions and thoughts may also be greatly influenced by our longings and inner desires. Thus, we may also ask, what is it that I actually long for, that I desire the most?
Is it comfort and riches? Is it pleasure? Is it inner peace and confidence? Is it forgiveness? Is it love and affection? Is it contentment in life? etc. Depending on what we really long for and desire the most, that our eyes will also be easily attracted into what we see from outside. When what we long for is peace and love, then, our eyes will shall surely be more attracted to things that shall express and show peace and love. Yet, when what is within us are the desires to be powerful, to be rich and influential, to be violent, to take revenge and hate, then, what we shall see are opportunities on how those desires will also be expressed in our actions.
Thus, Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “The Lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.”
This is how we understand the cruelty we find in the first reading from the Second Book of Kings. Athaliah whose heart was filled with anger and hatred, upon seeing the death of her son, Ahaziah, became more vicious. What she saw were opportunities on how to take revenge, to take the throne and take control and power. Her eyes were attracted on how to slaughter the whole royal family. Athaliah was actually the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel who murdered the innocent Naboth in order to grab his land. Both, worshipped Baal, a false god and where after the life of Prophet Elijah for reminding them of their sins against the Lord God and against the people.
This pictures out what Jesus tells in the Gospel, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.” Indeed, these people were after riches and power for themselves which turned them corrupt and evil. They were certainly, in darkness, as the Gospel says.
However, Jesus calls us today, “to store up treasures in heaven” by looking and by being attracted of the things of heaven. Thus, Jesus invites us to be more conscious of things that will last. Jesus was not talking about material possessions, neither human desires for recognition and power nor human cravings for self-gratification.
Jesus calls us to treasure the relationship we have with God and our relationship among ourselves as families, friends and community, as a church. This means that it is also an invitation to give priority to these relationships, in nurturing and giving importance through sharing of gifts and of our persons and giving sacrifices for one another and not in destroying each other.
Therefore, be daring in building intimate and deeper relationships with God and with others by giving what we have – our time and presence, by not fearing to take sacrifices for our loved ones, and by always being grateful of these relationships. This brings us to see more the needs of others, and not just our own needs and to see on how we can be more life-giving. Kabay pa.
The Lord teaches us how to pray. Isn’t it beautiful? The Lord himself taught us how to approach the heart of God not with a lengthy prayer, but with a greater confidence to God who we also call as our Father. Hence, Jesus taught his disciples on how to truly ask the Father and to pray sincerely.
This is where we also find Jesus’ warning for the disciples not to babble in their prayers but of empty words meant to only impress people. Jesus was conscious how the pagans would use many words but merely babbling. Well, the pagans believed that they have to use a lot of words in order to appease a violent and angry god. However, our God is not violent neither angry not need to be appeased. God, as Jesus introduced to us, is our Father.
By calling God as our father, this brings us into the affection we have with God. God would surely love being called as our Father, whose only desire is for us to grow in love.
This invites us now that our prayers and other forms of devotions are not meant to impress others or to flatter or manipulate the Lord because of our long, wordy and unintelligible prayers. What the Lord wants from us is our sincere and humble hearts that recognizes God as our Father.
The Lord’s Prayer brings us, indeed, into sincerity and humility because the prayers acknowledges first God, as our Father whose “divine will” takes priority than our own. Thus, we seek and recognize the will of God for us and not our wants. This brings us to be more aware of our needs of the present moment, of today, and not to be burdened by our past or to be anxious of what is to come tomorrow.
This is very important to remember that the prayer Jesus taught allows us to be more aware of our present moment, of our needs and graces of the here and now. This will certainly make us more contented and confident in life for we shall see how God provides and works for us in the present moment.
Indeed, Jesus invites us and teaches us on how to seek God’s desires because God knows what is best for us by praying the way he prays. May this simple but powerful prayer of our Lord gives us more confidence in the presence of God dwelling among us whose only desire is the best for us. Kabay pa.
Jesus warns us about our narcissistic tendencies. We might not be aware of our tendency to draw other people’s attention to us, of winning their praise. Indeed, there is a need for us to purify our every motivation and action so that we will live free and become true generous Christians.
Jesus takes this seriously as he reminds his disciples in today’s Gospel. To follow Christ is not to seek the attention of others, or to seek praise and approval of those people around us. A disciple of the Lord does not need to put up a billboard and announce to people what he/she has done and accomplished.
The Lord is more concerned with our heart so that we don’t have to pretend to be someone else we are not. This happened to the hypocrites in the synagogues that Jesus was talking about. These people pretended to be the best person in their community. They proclaimed and told people how good and righteous they were. They did all these to seek recognition from the people. Indeed, they craved for people’s attention and approval because they too were hungry of power and control.
People who constantly seek the attention of others and their recognition ultimately manipulate others so that they will be in control and will become powerful. Yet, it also reveals how these people are so insecure on what they have and on what they don’t have.
In fact, that insecurity boiling in the heart, can make the person vicious at the event when he or she receives criticism from others. The person will surely not be able to stand to be criticized by others for he or she only thinks and believes that he/she is always right and good. Thus, the person would not accept any correction and would be rejecting to any challenge.
However, as a people who seek God, we are rather called to be more confident with Him, and with our relationship with the Lord. Our generous actions, good deeds, our prayer and religious practices must flow from that relationship. Deepening one’s relationship with God should be our primary motivation and not in boasting oneself. This relationship with God should also lead us to recognize God’s generosity and faithfulness in us despite our failures. Then, this will hopefully inspire us to respond with gratitude to God. To become a grateful person will surely make us a generous person in words and actions. This will make us closer to people around us and to God.
This is how we could also explain the glorious departure of Elijah. The prophet showed his passion and dedication to the Lord. He was not anymore after anything for himself, but for God alone. Elijah, therefore, had grown in his relationship with the Lord God, the reason why he was taken alive by the Lord to heaven.
Moreover, Jesus also invites us today to look closely at our behaviors and attitudes, practices and devotions if these are helping us to be closer and to be more like Jesus or if these are rather, moving us away from God and from others.
To remind ourselves about this, let us ask ourselves with these questions, “Who is being honored and served by my good deeds, by my generous actions and by my religious devotions? Is it myself or is it God? Do they lead me closer to God and to others or do they rather lead me away from the Lord?”
By allowing these questions to sip into our mind, may we be filled with the desire to only win the heart of God and not the praise of others. Kabay pa.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Many of us know that these are lines from perhaps one of the most known books of all time, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. It is said that in this book, Dickens referred to an age of radical opposites taking place across the English Channel, in France and the United Kingdom respectively, during the French revolution more than two hundred years ago between 1787 and 1799.
But these contrasts and comparisons we might be able to appropriate for our very own times here in our own troubled country in the post-pandemic, post-May 2022 election period and as we faced an unknown future where everything from an economic collapse (along the lines of Sri Lanka and Pakistan) to a political turmoil to an ecological disasters with more destructive calamities can take place. It certainly can bring a season of darkness and a winter of despair. But for those who hold on to the adage that “hope springs eternal,!” this very same context could also provide us with a season of light and a spring of hope! Who is to tell what the future brings?
But the more pessimistic among us might see the glass half empty and fear the worst that is still to come! A recent post appearing in social media following the Marcos Junior’s selection of the presumptive Vice-President Sara Duterte as Secretary of Education led to speculations about revising history books and getting rid of those considered critical of the Marcos martial law regime. It would amount of what could be considered book-burning, not in its literal sense but to make sure these are kept locked and not be read by any schoolchildren anymore! As Ray Bradbury – the author of Fahrenheit 451, a science-fiction novel – wrote: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Bro. Karl signing a book during the Book Festival. Photo by LeilaRispens-Noel Facebook Account.
As an immediate response to this fear, a thousand academics across the Republic made a brave stand reported by the Philippine Inquirer on May 20, 2022 which read:
“More than 1,000 scholars and educators based in the Philippines and abroad have issued an online manifesto calling for the defense of historical truth and academic freedom, as they expressed concern over escalating attempts to revise narratives about the martial law years and erase ‘traumatic personal and collective memories of plunder and human rights violation’ under the Marcos dictatorship.”
Book-burning! Could it happen in this Republic considered by political scientists as a weak State constantly facing the threat of authoritarian rule? Well, this does not only take place in novels like those in Bradbury. Through history, book-burning has taken place when those who hold power fear the impact of critical minds that arise as people read. These took place as far back as the time of the Chinese Emperor Shih Huang Ti, in 213 BCE, up to the mid-20th century e.g. during the World War II period.
The defining moment of book burning was in 1933 in Berlin, when the Nazi forces burned tens of thousands of books, from the works of Sigmund Freud to those of Jack London. As Matthew Fishburn wrote in Burning Books: “Along with the Nazi ideology that there existed a superior race of people came the idea that there was one true cultural and ideological canon; that which didn’t fit was consigned to the fire.”
For the moment, however, let’s put aside our fears and face the future with a bit of optimism for, indeed, who knows the coming years will again allow us to have a glimpse of another cycle of our historical narrative.
What impressed me most in these past electoral exercise was how the youth of the land responded to the challenge of the moment. Many of us elders have naturally been disappointed at how the youth of the land have shown no interest at all in regard to socio-political issues impacting on the majority of the masa. But these rallies showed another face of the youth of the land; here they were re-activated by the spirit of nationalism. Like us when we were the youth of the land, they now showed a promise that they would pick up where their elders left off the social movement in the 80s-90s.
And it made me realize that indeed, history repeats itself again. Just like the youth of the social movement that gave rise to the likes of Hermano Pule Gregorio del Pilar, the La Solidaridad clique led by Jose Rizal and the Katipuneros led by Bonifacio, to the youth of the guerilla movement during the resistance against Japanese imperialism, and the youth resisting the Marcos dictatorial rule and now the youth of the 2020s are advancing into another stage of dissent and resistance. I have been filled with a tremendous sense of hope and pride watching all these young people at these rallies.
There may be dark clouds in the horizon, but somehow light manages to find a crack and it is the youth of the land today that provides an opening. So we could be in for the best of times if this youthful generation like their elders through our historical cycles find the strength, courage and energy to lead the dissent and resistance movement.
As for us – who I guess are mostly their elders – are gathered here together at this five-day event which is our own modest way of expressing what were encapsulated in the words of the Irish poet Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” And who – but authors, writers and journalists – are the human beings who are best at raging so they can challenge the citizenry towards constructive action for the common good.
In the next week (June 13-17, 2022), we celebrate the best that have been offered by Mindanawon authors along with non-Mindanawon authors interested to write about Mindanao. In many of their works, their writing (WRITE) has also led to the righting (RIGHT) of Mindanao. There was a time when Mindanao was written from a colonial lens even as some of these – like the ethnographic studies done during the American period – tried to capture the reality on the ground.
But viewed from biased and even discriminatory optics, the early writings about Mindanao tended to highlight that which today have been debunked. In the exhibit, you can see examples of these. This was to be expected if the authors were foreigners (with tendencies towards racism and ethnocentrism) or Filipinos from imperial Manila – who monopolized publications for a long while – who relied on secondary data with very little triangulation enriched by immersion among Mindanao’s peripheries.
However, in the past few decades as there have been more non-Mindanawon authors who have abandoned their colonial/neo-colonial gaze and as more Mindanawons began to get involved in publications, a shift has taken place. Thus beyond the w-r-i-t-e, there has now been a movement among Mindanawon writers to r-i-g-h-t Mindanao, through advocacies for justice and peace, respect for human rights and civil liberties, solidarity for the downtrodden especially Lumads and for a] advancing ecological concerns.
One can find this out by goggling the available data on Mindanao Bibliiographies and there have been a few. Perhaps the first Mindanao-Sulu Bibliography was that W.E. Retana’s in 1894. It would take a long while before another one appeared, namely Alfredo Tiamzon’s Mindanao-Sulu Bibliography published in Davao City in 1970. In the following decades, there were more attempts at compiling a more comprehensive Mindanawon Bibliography, the last one being convened by the Technical Working Group (TWG) just before the onset of the pandemic. This hopes to produce a RoadMap asserting the importance of Mindanao histories and studies. .
Why history? Because, in the words of the philosopher George Santaya – “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And the novelist Maya Angelou posits that “the more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.” History is of course the telling of stories of the past with the view of parceling lessons to guide us for the future. There is no question that stories are powerful.
The author Jeff Goins wrote: “I believe in the power of story. Story is where we came from. Story is where we’re going. Story is what connects us and binds us to each other. It is in the story of humanity, amongst love and fear and failure, that we make meaning of our lives. Story is what defines us and sets us apart. It’s what allows us to connect with each other to truly know and be known.”
Stories is what brought to reality the Second Mindanao Week Festival. And privileged are we that during these rare occasions we can gather together with authors, writers and journalists – they who can conscientize, educate, inform, agitate, mobilize, entertain and humor us through thick and thin! They whose witness to truth and actual practice in peace-building and promoting justice and development make possible a society that will not allow stupidity, idiocy and ignorance to dominate over our knowledge and information production.
For otherwise, we will all be living in a world of lies, corruption and power manipulation that could bring us back to the Dark Ages! It is their presence in our midst that help to provide us with the possibilities that despite a winter of despair we can still look forward to a spring of hope!
(This article was first addressed during the Mindanao Book Festival II at the Redemptorist Community in Davao City as part of the 50th anniversary of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish, in collaboration with the MindaNews Media Cooperative Center/Institute of Journalism, SATMI and of the Parish. The exhibit is until Friday, June 17.)
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 