At a parking lot, I heard street children playfully singing, “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura? Nag-Pasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada? Yan ang tanong namin, Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?”
If only for the millions of pesos spent for this infomercial, all members of Filipino households with TV sets ought to know by now how to sing along with this campaign jingle. I’ve heard it aired repeatedly like a Christmas carol during the season of Christmas and up to now that Jesus has already been baptized and about to inaugurate his messianic mission!
Without making any ethical assessment on the issue of the fortune spent on this single campaign item, and certainly, without either endorsing or criticizing the candidate behind this in deference to his political supporters or rivals, I submit a simple interpretation of the jingle as starting point for our Sunday reflection.
The jingle tries to project an experiential knowledge of the misery of the poor (Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura? Nag-Pasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada?) so as to portray the candidate’s identification with them (Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?) and more importantly, to express the promise to end the plague of poverty in the Philippines (Si ______ ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan).
As such, it is a great promise I think. As such, it is an expression of a much needed love and concern for the poor. No doubt, we badly need such aspirations to come true. Just imagine no more poverty in my beloved Philippines… How I wish!
But election times, as we know all too well, have never failed to come up with great promises and have consistently toyed with the flickering hope of the poor. Many elections had transpired but look at where we are. For us Filipinos today, what we want to see is the fidelity of a leader to his/her words and promises and the genuine motivation of love for the poor. Without fidelity, promises however great they may be are empty. Without genuine love, identification with the poor is but a show and a veiled exploitation.
Today’s gospel reading (Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21) features Jesus’ inauguration of his messianic ministry. This incident as recounted by the evangelist Luke directly follows Jesus’ “retreat” in the wilderness right after his baptism. Jesus by now has been certain about his identity as the Son of God and his mission as the anointed messiah. Hence, facing the people of Nazareth in the synagogue, Jesus reads the messianic prophecy from the scroll of Isaiah.
He proclaims thus: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… He has anointed me… to bring glad tidings to the poor… to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free… to announce a year of favor from the Lord” (v. 18-19).
And while all eyes are intently fixed on him as he hands back the scroll, he boldly proclaims the inauguration of the messianic time: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). This is like saying: “Today I come as the fulfillment of this promise. Today I inaugurate the messianic task of bringing the good news to the poor, to the captives, to the blind, to the oppressed.”
My dear friends the gospel today highlights two things: First, the fidelity of God to his words and promise; second, Jesus’ identification of his mission with the poor.
God’s Fidelity to his Promise. In the person and mission of Jesus, God has fulfilled his promise of long ago to save his people from all forms of oppression rooted in sin. Jesus is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy. Jesus, the Messiah, has ushered in the Kingdom of God where the poor celebrate the bounty of God, the captives enjoy a life of freedom, the blind rejoice in seeing the beauty that surrounds them, the oppressed cherish their dignity.
When God promises, God makes good of that. We are never left empty. How has God been faithful to his promise to me? How has he been liberating me from the clout of sin that oppresses me?
As Christians we continue the mission of Christ. We are asked to be faithful to the gospel we preach. Our society, especially the poorer sectors, is longing for such fidelity. Have we not left our words and promises empty? As a Church, have we not paid a lip-service to our commitments to the poor?
Jesus’ Identification with the Poor. The first and privileged recipients of the Messiah’s mission are the socially and physically deprived, the economically poor, and the politically oppressed. The gospel of Luke brings this out in Jesus’ personal dealings and his teaching. In this inaugural proclamation, Jesus pronounces that his prophetic ‘anointing’ is to identify him with the lowliest and the most forgotten.
Today, the poor continue to be exploited. Am I part of those who are taking advantage of the helplessness of the poor? The gospel today invites us to be identified with the poor. This means cultivating genuine love and concern for the least of our brothers and sisters and spending time, treasure, talent to bring the good news of change to their miserable lives.
No single person or leader can finish off the plague of poverty. To make a difference, we all need to work together allowing a genuine love for the poor to be our unifying motivation and not our individualistic ambitions.
Sino ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan? All of us in a concerted effort… when we learn how to make good of our promises and when we are truly motivated by a genuine love for poor!
