Hawak Kamay sa Paglalakbay (All Saints Day)

A funny story I’ve always enjoyed retelling since my naughty high school years: Two Mr. Suave look-a-likes were bragging about their familiarity with the saints. This happened in such time when sporting a mustache is a fad. In those days, not to have a mustache is tantamount to being considered less a man! To find out who was truly knowledgeable, they agreed to do a contest. Each would have to mention a saint’s name. For every name one uttered, he would pluck a strand of the other’s mustache. (Just imagine what’s at stake, huh.) So the contest began.

Mr. Suave I: “St. Augustine!” He then plucked a strand of the other’s mustache which caused the other to be teary-eyed.

Mr. Suave II: “St. Joseph!” Then he did the same to the other.

“St. Therese!” “St. Magdalene!” “St. Thomas!” “St. Francis!” So on and so forth… They were both shedding tears because of the pain. Then they came to the point that one could no longer recall a saint. Mr. Suave II began to be frantic for he was about to lose, when all of a sudden he grinned and, at the top of his lungs, shouted, “Todos Los Santos!”

Ouuucccchhhh! That ended the mustache era.

All Saints Day Solemnity is honoring not just a favorite saint but all the unsung heroes of outstanding love and dedication to Christian life whom we believed have made it, “without much fanfare,” to heaven. While our devotion to our individual patron saints gives us the opportunity to emulate the exceptional virtues of their lives and maybe rely too on their intercession, the celebration of All Saints Day brings to mind the “communion of saints” and offers us the chance to honor the whole crowd of saints.

John’s vision as proclaimed in the first reading (Rev. 7, 2-4, 9-14) depicts “the great multitude which no one could count from every nation, race, people, and tongue… who have survived the great period of trial.” This reminds us of the communal dimension of our destiny as God’s children. Our journey to God is not the individualist’s I-and-my-savior affair. Instead, today’s solemnity, instructs us that our journey is the path of loving relationship between us, as God’s people, and God, as a Trinity—a community of persons. Our responsorial psalm rightly exclaims our desire as a people: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.” Furthermore, the second reading (1 Jn 3, 1-3) reminds us that we are called “God’s children” because of the Father’s love and we shall see him as he is.

Again, we don’t journey as isolated individuals. We journey as a people… as children of God… as a family of God towards a destiny which is nothing but communion with one another, with the whole of creation, and with the Triune God.

This is an invitation to rethink our convenient individualistic spirituality. We are challenge to rise above our propensity towards self-righteousness, our penchant to a holier-than-thou piety that looks down on others whose lives may not measure up to our own standards. We have to correct our anong-pakialam-ko-sa-yo attitude to life. Of course, any spirituality or relationship with God has to be very personal and unique to the individuals. However, it has to find its expression in the market place, its celebration in the community. After all, love, which is at the heart of Christian spirituality, cannot thrive in isolation. It flourishes in relationships. It blossoms in a fertile garden we call community.


So, if our definite future is communion of the saints as promised by what we are celebrating today, our present way of living must, to some degree, already conform to such a vision. We need to stop thinking as an isolated “I” in competition with others. We need to think family. Think community. Hawak-kamay… sa paglalakbay… as the song goes… in good times… in bad times… in the very dry seasons… and in the very wet seasons of this changed climate!

The beatitudes proclaimed once more in the gospel reading (Mt. 5, 1-12) are the key towards our transformation into a holy community not only in that definite future but already in the here and now. To be “poor in spirit,” for instance, can be an invitation to be free from material enslavement and to be free for equitable sharing of possessions so that our poor neighbors may indeed have their share. To “mourn” may be an invitation to empathize with those who are suffering and therefore move beyond our selfish personal whims and caprices to reach out to them. To be “merciful” is to be forgiving to those who have wronged or hurt us. It’s an invitation to reconciliation—a necessity for any imperfect human community. To be single-hearted is to make God our deepest longing and priority in life rather than the misleading materialistic values to which our secular society is helplessly being configured. To be “peacemaker” is a challenge to work for harmony in this fragmented society. To endure persecution and insult because of the Lord’s name is to share in the redemptive suffering of Christ.

We are destined to be a community of saints in heaven. Many of our brothers and sisters, by God’s grace we believe, have gone ahead of us. We honor them today. But while on this earth, we can endeavor to make our families and communities conform to that glorious community of saints we are hoping for. Let us be guided by the path to happiness laid out for us by the Lord’s teachings on the beatitudes. No one journeys in isolation. We journey together as God’s family. Hawak-kamay… sa paglalakbay.

Banquets and the Kingdom (28th Sunday Ordinary A)

Filipinos have an irredeemable penchant for fiesta celebration.  We celebrate feasts at all cost. Just imagine the Sinulog of Cebu. When the feast of the Santo Nino is approaching, all roads lead to Cebu City. Of course, when talking about fiesta celebration, one cannot help but mention one’s experience with the people of Bohol! The whole month of May is an uninterrupted fiesta celebration. This fondness for feasts lends itself to our easy appreciation of the motif of today’s parable of the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1-14).

Right away we would react with disbelief to the parable’s account of the guests’ act of refusal or attitude of indifference to the invitation of the King who gave a wedding feast for his son.  A true-blooded Filipino does not refuse a feast.  Come on! He would travel half of the globe in order to be part of the celebration!  

In the Philippines, when organizing a feast, the organizers’ primary and most thorny concern is not whether or not the guests will come but how to control the onslaught of a horde of mamistahay (those who come ready for the feast) which probably is as devastating as the storm Yolanda.

The Kingdom of God as a banquet. The parable compares the Kingdom of God to a feast, a wedding banquet, to where all peoples are invited. When the intended guests refused to come, (thanks be to God!), the banquet was opened to anyone in the streets, “bad and good alike.”  The Kingdom of God then becomes universal. Everyone can partake of the abundance of the celebration.  This banquet refers to the triumphant celebration of the eschatological fulfilment of time.  This is our destiny. When history shall have come to its fulfilment and finally gives way to the Kingdom of God, all peoples will be together in that joyful celebration as in a banquet hosted by our loving God.  Who would dare choose to be left out?

On the way to that destiny, the Eucharist is the banquet through which we have a foretaste of what is to come. In the Eucharistic celebration, we come together as one family and partake of the meal in the spirit of solidarity or of communion, with hope for the final fulfilment of God’s plan of salvation.  We are a people of hope; every moment of Eucharistic celebration enkindles such hope.  But we have to ask this:  When we celebrate, who are left out? This is a pastoral question of great importance.  My observation is that one significant sector that tends to be left out of our Eucharistic celebrations is the youth of today.  More and more the youth are finding our Eucharistic celebration as strange... and boring!  We’ve got to muster all our remaining creative juices to attract them.

The requirement in the Kingdom. Another point in the parable is the requirement of “proper attire” in the Kingdom of God. The man who came to the banquet without a wedding garment was thrown out to the dark where punishment awaits him (vv.12-13).  The proper garment for the wedding banquet stands for the quality of active Christian life.  This means putting on Jesus Christ.  This is trying on the garb of Christ’s values.  Nominal membership is not enough in the Kingdom just as nominal Catholics do no good to the Church. One can only be worthy of God’s Kingdom when he puts on the cloth of self-giving, leading a life of service and love; when he dons the cloth of forgiveness, letting go of any harboured hatred and desire for vengeance; when he tries on the cloth of truth and justice, correcting the culture of corruption and social inequalities in our communities.  The Kingdom of God is incompatible with the “disvalues” of this sinful world. While, according to God’s plan, all has a place in this Kingdom, those who persist in their sins by rejecting Christ and everything He stands for would naturally find themselves out of place.

Family meals as our daily banquet. Final point, our participation in the feast of God’s Kingdom may well be learned through our faithfulness to our simple family meal each day. There used to be a good advertisement on TV portraying the value of sharing meal as a family. The parents were worried about the prevalent practice of premarital sex among the young generation of today. At table, the parents told their son that during their time, his father waited till they got married. The son said, “Sabi ng tropa, ang tunay na lalaki ay binibinyagan.” The parents were quite alarmed and asked, “Eh, anong sabi mo?”  The son replied, “Ang tunay na lalaki ay marunong maghintay.” The ads showed the parents’ sigh of relief and concluded to this effect:  There’s a good chance of effectively guiding the growing up children to the right values when families share meals together. Amen to that.

We want to bring back the youth to the community of God? We want every Christian to put on the values of Christ? Call me traditional, but I am convinced that the simple gathering of the families each day sharing meals together can still do the trick. The family meal is also a foretaste of the banquet of God’s Kingdom. The family meal is the perfect wholesome gathering where we all learn how to enjoy life and to manifest love for one another. It is where we learn the basics of putting on Christ in our lives. It is the feast to where we are all invited to partake each beautiful day.