My mother’s puppy needed a name. Instead of the old-fashioned “Brownie” with which
my mom started calling him, I came to the rescue and baptized him with the
coolest name ever (next to Joey of course) — BudŐy.
BudŐy is the lead character of a primetime telenovela that revolves around the story of an autistic child born
out of the morally contested in vitro
fertilization procedure. BudŐy ends up
with a foster mother after he has been rejected by his image-conscious influential
family who apparently wants to get rid of the humiliation that his autism might
bring. Despite all these, BudŐy grows up as a wonderful person who
brings with him his contagious joy advising people to “Be happy, be BudŐy!” He shows his capability for a truly sincere and
enriching friendship. He endears his
foster mother with his sensitive love for her.
He inspires his fellow with his dream and drive to become better and little
brighter. He has been deprived of a lot
of things in life but he has got what it takes to warm people’s hearts.
This is inspiring. It’s so easy to wallow in the mud of self-pity
when life seems to be unfair. BudŐy
stands for a person who has been given less in life but does not succumb to the
temptation of defeat. Instead, he rises
above the seeming unfairness of life by capitalizing whatever little he has
got.
Today’s gospel is the Parable of the Talents (Mt. 25:14-30). Three
servants are entrusted with five, two, and one talent respectively to be
invested in the master’s absence. Talent was the largest unit of currency
known at that time. Other translations
render a talent as a thousand silver pieces.
Hence, the first servant is entrusted with five thousand silver pieces,
the second with two thousand, the third with one thousand silver pieces. Today we understand talents as some skills
and personal qualities we are gifted with.
While the parable does not intend to legitimize, much less glorify, the
inequalities in life, it instructs us about our sense of responsibility
especially in view of the final accounting at the end of time. We are accountable to our Master. Our accountability is in direct proportion to
the abilities with which we have been entrusted.
Much is expected from whom much is given. Hence, the master in the parable is happy
with the first two servants who manage to double the amount they have entrusted
with. But while the master does not expect much from him who has been given
very little, he still expects at least whatever enterprising spirit that could
be harnessed with whatever little resources made available. Hence, the third servant who just buried his
talent out of his negative notion of his master is rightly met with his master’s
anger and punishment.
Despite a long history of struggle for social revolution, the
world remains the same. The divide
between the haves and have-nots are gaping still like a wide sarcastic smile taunting
the sacrifices made by agents of change in the name of egalitarian ideals. The more the disparity becomes glaring today
when the name of the game is global competition. Only the haves can possibly compete. The have-nots are marginalized. Will we ever live to see the ideals of
equality actually put in place? Certainly not in this generation. But we continue to hope.
The hope for change begins in our hearts. We can better speak of a revolution from the
heart. To the haves, those given with a
lot more “talents” than the others, in the spirit of the parable’s message of accountability,
the revolution begins by dismantling all inner value systems that support an insatiable
individualistic greed. From its rubble,
the haves are morally obligated to put up the value systems of social
responsibility, equitable justice, and even charity. Without this interior change, any attempt for
structural change in this world will most likely end up with new external forms
but with the same old vicious intentions.
To the have-nots, the inner change will have to begin with
dismantling the defeatist outlook that subscribes to the helpless consignment
of the poor and the less fortunate to their pitiful plight forever and ever. The have-nots have to believe in their
dignity, have to strengthen self-respect, and harness their innate capacity to
rise above this seeming unfairness of life.
God is not happy with “worthless, lazy lout.”
But God must be very proud of BudŐy.
