In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals the paralytic by forgiving his sins, "Your sins are forgiven.... rise, pick up your mat, and go home." (Mk. 2:5, 11). The healing of both body and spirit. This is what Jesus gave the paralytic. This is what He gave us, His people, at Edsa 1, and again, at Edsa 2. But we are finding it so darn difficult to pick up our mat and go home. And home is where God is – love, justice, and peace.
Our President Arroyo is doing her moral-spiritual best to lead us there – but so many of our leaders are still indifferent, resistant, or downright opposed. May we once and for all scrap that American democratic principles of separating the secular from the sacred. They learned their lesson from the collapse of the secular World Trade Center. Let us learn ours from Edsa 1 and Edsa 2. The secular must fall under the sacred.
And sacred here does not mean a particular institutional religion, but the Creator of us all, the one and only God of the whole universe. Jesus keeps pointing to His Father as the Father of all – Jews and Gentiles alike, as well as the Father of the lands, the seas, and the entire cosmos.
It was in this spirit that Jesus, the Man of Compassion, was in solidarity with the poor, the oppressed, the victims of social injustices, and denounced the self-serving, religion-political groups of the time. "Jesus saw... that there was more oppression and economic exploitation from within Judaism than from without. The middle-class Jews who were in rebellion against Rome were themselves oppressors of the poor and the uneducated. The people had to suffer far more on account of the oppression of the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots than on account of the Romans." (From A. Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity).
In contemporary terms, this is what is happening today in our own country. Within this so-called Christian nation are the ever increasing "oppression and economic exploitation from within." Inspite of Edsa 1 and Edsa 2.
Next year’s election will be most crucial. Whom shall we choose as our next President? Already, morally – questionable candidates are being positioned to run. One is allegedly involved in narco-politics, drug-trafficking, and other ruthless strategies. Another one is allegedly involved in anti-poor capitalistic enterprises. God help us if either one of them becomes President! Although neither one of them has been legally convicted, we cannot and must not take any chances! Where there is smoke, can we say that there is no fire?
Neither Marcos nor Estrada was legally convicted in court, either. But the moral-spiritual power of God’s people triumphed.
President Arroyo is urgently challenging all of us to choose as our next President the leader who possesses unquestionable moral integrity and authentically God-centered. And the Church should fully support and actively work for this to come about. This is what Jesus would do if He were bodily here with us today.
Jesus, compassion, and politics.