May Araw Ka Rin! (6th Sunday Ordinary C)

Today's gospel has two inter-related elements: A message of hope for the poor and those who are suffering and a strong warning to the powerful who cause the miseries of the people.

The message of hope. “Blessed are the poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours!” This is today’s good news (Lk 6:17, 20-26). But many find this statement perplexing and contradictory. How can the poor be fortunate? How can the hungry be happy? How can those who are weeping be joyful? How can the hated, insulted, and persecuted rejoice?

How can we who are mired into different forms of misery known to this broken world truly find meaning? How can we be called blessed?

The contradiction ceases ONLY when we who are suffering acknowledge the power of the love of God. The loving God never leaves his suffering people orphan.

This is what Jesus announces in the gospel reading. He announces the message of hope to those whose lives have become seemingly hopeless because of injustices, persecution, exploitation and sheer powerlessness. He is saying, “Hold on. God is here. God reigns. God triumphs over sin and evil. The Kingdom of God is yours! Hence, your suffering will be reversed. Remember this. Do not despair!”

When we are right there in the heart of suffering, we, short-sighted and faithless as we are, tend to despair. We tend to loose grip of the beauty of life. And if the world such as what we have continues to build structures of suffering so much so that it makes sure that more and more people stumble and fall, how can we ever conceive of true happiness as a people?

We need to realize that we cannot stand alone. We cannot depend only on our human strength. In the darkest hour of the night, we have to believe that daylight awaits us. It may be fearful while we are there. But we need to hold on. May bukas pa. We have to cling to our faith in God who never abandons us even in his seeming absence. He is our strength. He is our hope. And God never fails those who hope in him!

The message of warning. I’m tempted to end this reflection here with this pleasant note. But the latter part of the Gospel reading, while not very pleasant, is equally significant. Jesus addresses too those who cause the suffering of people while they themselves enjoy the bounty of life, oftentimes at the expense of those who are suffering.

In Jesus’ time, the rich, the powerful, and the holy were so conceited to think that God was on their side which explained their bounty. Their self-righteousness systematically marginalized the poor from society and even exploited them. They looked down on the poor as sinners and deserving to suffer!

So, as the prophets before him has done, Jesus pronounces in the gospel today his denunciation of this kind of attitude. “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep…” (v 25).

This is a precaution, a warning to those who maintain an I-don’t-care attitude to the suffering of God’s people and more so for those who are the cause of the pain and unhappiness of God’s children. The warning consists in the reversal of situation: Should the rich and powerful continue their insensitivity and abuses, they will end up in misery.

Jesus' message, hence, assures the poor of God’s love and bounty. They have all the reason to be hopeful. To them Jesus is saying, “may bukas pa.” But to the conceited and exploitative rich, he is expressing his stern warning that, should they not repent, “may araw ka rin!”

Lord, heal our land
Father, heal our land
Hear our cry and turn our nation back to You
Lord, heal our land
Hear us oh, Lord, and heal our land
Forgive our sin and heal our broken land

What Hope Is There? (33rd Sunday Ordinary B)

Why do bad people prosper? Conversely and even more poignant: Why do good people needlessly suffer? It’s without rhyme or reason indeed. Our human logic and sense of justice demand that the other way around ought to be true. But no amount of wishful thinking can seem to change this reality. Oftentimes, this makes us helplessly angry. We protest. We cry out for justice. We gnash our teeth, for instance, when corrupt leaders get away with wholesale thievery of public funds pointing a finger to helpless escape goats, continue to assume power and influence, and even get second chances! Whereas people of integrity never make it to public positions of leadership or if they do, they are either persecuted or die early. It’s appalling, isn’t it? This isn’t fair.

I cannot forget, for instance, what happened to the dedicated high school principal in a town of Sulu in 2009.  The principal was kidnapped, accordingly by the Abu Sayyaf extremists, and two million pesos was demanded for the ransom! One could only wonder how they could do such a thing to a public teacher.  Worse, after several weeks, the news was out that the poor principal was beheaded; most probably for not coming up with the ransom! The savagery inflicted on a person who had been selfless in serving the educational needs of such a place where people like to go the least was simply revolting. I did not know the teacher personally; but just the same, I felt every fiber of my being, just as many others do, cry out for justice and retribution on his behalf. Was this rightful demand for justice met? So far, the straightforward answer is NO.

What then can satisfy our rightful longing for justice? What hope is there for the righteous to be rendered what they truly deserve?

Today’s readings are about this hope. The language of the first reading (Dn 12:1-3) and the gospel today (Mk 13:24-32) is apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature sounds terrifying as it describes graphically the end of time; but in fact, it has something to do with the people’s cry for justice and retribution. The evil seem to have their way in history. They prosper. The good long for their reward as promised; but all too often, it is not given them. They even suffer. This same observation of old made the Jewish prophetic tradition gradually realize that justice for the faithful would have to reach beyond the here and now. The apocalyptic eschatology then emerged such as that of the book of Daniel. This apocalyptic literature is an expression of hope that there will be an end to this history fraught with injustices. The end of time will mark the ultimate victory of God over evil. God’s justice will certainly reign.

In today’s gospel, for instance, after describing the days of tribulation marked by the darkening of the sun and the moon, the dislocation of the stars, and the agitation of the powers in the heavens, the evangelist Mark announces the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds with great power and glory to gather his elect from all parts of the world.

‘The Son of Man coming in the clouds’ is an expression that reveals Jesus as a divine judge.  Those who have been faithful will finally have their vindication. Thus, Mark’s intention in this apocalyptic writing is to exhort the Christian communities of his time to remain faithful in the face of persecution and suffering. This gospel is a message of hope and encouragement rather than of fear.  It’s the evangelist way of saying, “Don’t lose heart! Hold on! God will have the final word!”

We all could use such an encouragement. When our commitment for justice seems to come to naught, when our goodness seems to have no reward, when our conscientious witnessing of our faith brings persecution and suffering, we need to heed this voice again and again: “Don’t lose heart! Hold on! God will have the final word!” This assurance in no way tolerates a fatalistic attitude to life. This is not an encouragement to be passive towards injustices, relegating resolution to the afterlife. Rather, this gives an impetus, a shot in the arm, to our commitment to justice and goodness as our standard way of living in this present life—despite the seeming evident prosperity of the contrary.

So, when we are faced with such an existential question as the seeming unfairness of life, or when we, in our goodness and our own witness of the gospel values, experience misfortunes, we need to be courageous and steadfast in our faith. We need to hold on. Not giving up. Not losing heart. Continue to work for goodness making this world a better place to live in as we also pray each day to the Lord of history, “May your Kingdom come” that justice and goodness may finally flourish.

Do I have the steadfastness of faith to see me through life’s tribulations and to trust in God’s promise of the ultimate victory of the just?

* * *

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

                                                                        -Dr. Kent M. Keith