Life after death?

Do Filipinos really believe that there is life after death? As the purportedly only Christian country in Asia – that is to say until Timor-Leste gained its own statehood recently, the Philippines should have an easy answer to this question.

Of course, there is life after death. After all, that is a fundamental tenet of Christianity. One lives, one dies, and then one lives again – the second time around forever and ever, whether one be ensconced in blissful paradise or sizzling in fiery hell. (Purgatory does not count as it is presumably only a holding place, a temporary quarantine for suspect souls who, after doing some time, liberally earn their own comfortable place among the luckier ones.)

Filipinos probably are as comfort-oriented as other Christians – as perhaps any other people in the planet – and therefore must prefer a life of eternal bliss rather than one of endless torment. Where everlasting life depends on how one lives his earthly life, where being good in this existence gains eternal bliss and being less than good imperils it, how can so many Christian Filipinos stray from a path of righteousness and choose to gain the world at the expense of their Christian souls?

How can so many among the influential and the powerful Christians in this country opt to corrupt their nation, subvert its governance, plunder its treasury and beggar most of their people? And, among the common people – equally "Christian" as those who lead and control them – how can the multitude also regularly opt for momentary advantages rather than enduring gains? Corruption is demonstrably rife in both the public and the private sectors. In the last six months, crime victimization may have been suffered by at least 800,000 people in Metro Manila alone. (That is the equivalent of one victim for every twelve residents in the country’s premier area.) In the last year, close to half a million aborted pregnancies might have taken place nationwide. Trafficking in Filipinos – women, men and children – is of critical proportions and occurs locally, nationally and internationally. The number of prostitutes nationwide has been estimated to be as large as the country’s labor force in manufacturing. Reputable qualitative studies and hard statistical data clearly indicate that not enough Filipinos are choosing to live the good life even as there may be more than enough who unduly put a premium on having a good time.

Perhaps most Filipinos really do not believe that there is life after death. Perhaps the functional belief is that there is this present life and anything beyond it is an exercise in ambiguity, in gross uncertainty. Living for the moment then becomes rational and people ritualistically announce a belief in eternal life because it is socially correct to do so. It is like greeting each other "Good morning" and bidding each other "Goodbye" – now largely vacuous statements that originally were uttered as sincere wishes for those being addressed, as indicated by their grammatically accusative mode in languages less ambiguous than English.

Or Filipinos may seriously believe in life after death, but they also may think that the modes of eternal life are not so significantly different from those of this life, of life as it has been in the Philippines. Perhaps divine law and its authorities may not be all that knowing and may miss out on many infractions that one commits in this life. (After all, with an exploding global population and innumerable global concerns to monitor, it is not inconceivable that even the divine authorities could have their hands full and their eyes glazed and so why shouldn’t a national plunder here and another local corruption there go unnoticed?)

Or, even assuming omniscience in the divine law and its authorities, why should one not be able to reasonably discuss one’s transgressions with them? That, after all, is what happens in a Christian place like the Philippines. Some transactional forum must allow for reasonable accommodations being made for those who violate a divine law. Whoever might be the heavenly counterparts of the Philippine police, fiscals, judges, justices, legislators and the executive authorities, their divine perspective cannot possibly exclude reasonable accommodations and pragmatic compromises!

Then again, assuming unfailing divine knowledge and a relatively strict implementation of all divine prescriptions — to most Filipinos, a most unnatural and unnerving phenomenon – another way out for the believer in life after death presents itself. Love and compassion — even love and compassion deprived of justice — is an unfailing recourse. In their earthly country, the Philippines, time heals everything and heels and heroes irrevocably merge into one another. By 1995, just over a decade after the nation drew a line between Ninoy Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos, Filipinos by the same proportion (7%) found both to be heroic and the great majority could no longer distinguish the heel from the hero. In April 2004, two of their most loving and compassionate daughters could meet and publicly discuss their wardrobes — both apparently rented – with neither being able to discern or inclined to point out the difference their parents made in molding their nation’s history.

How could heaven itself not have as much love and compassion for Filipino transgressors who betray their country, plunder their nation and beggar their already much-impoverished people?

For such enterprising Filipinos, whether there is life after death or not makes little difference. Carpe diem is their only operational belief. Seize the moment, take everything you can from it in whatever way you can and later, if there is indeed life after death, you may also take eternity and enjoy all its goodies just the same.

Of course, such people may preach Christianity and publicly observe all its rituals. One makes a horrible mistake in thinking they are Christians. They are not even Filipinos, really.