My Pinoy countrymen, how do you love one another?

(Part 2 of a series on Valentines)

Although I was raised by Benedictine Filipino and German nuns of St. Scholastica’s College, I felt I did not truly know how to pray in spite of so many spiritual exercises. For instance, the moment we entered the school gate we would pass by the beautiful mahogany paneled church to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. Prayers were said before each subject teacher would start the lesson. Yearly retreats were done in complete silence. The boys we met were from San Beda, La Salle, and Letran.

In the mid-sixties, I studied in Italy and learned to pray in Italian. Later in the ’80s, I worked in Paris as UNESCO Executive Board member. That’s where I discovered Michel Quoist’s Prayers of Life and Christ is Alive, the books that taught me the true meaning of praying. More than one and a half million copies of his books have been sold.

A pastor of Le Havre, he became Secretary General of the French Episcopal committee. He has a unique gift of translating the central essence of Christianity into concepts, which are truly meaningful today. And meaningful not only to committed Christians, but to all those who share a common concern about the progress of humanity itself and for whom the formalities of religion may have become a jaded exercise.

This is how he wrote: Meet Christ and live!

"I have watched Christian adults and observed how they have developed. At first, many Christians lived in the sacristy of the church and occupied themselves with parish work. At one point, the priests told them that they should go out into the world, but they were strangers in the world. Thus, they had to set about becoming men again that they may follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man to save the world.

"They came to know men who were struggling and joined in the struggle, no longer merely at the side of other men, but WITH them. After a few years, they came to realize that it was not easy to build a just world and that even where battles had been won, as well as new structures set up, man remained discouragingly the same and continued to spread the infection of his alienating selfishness."

It is hard to see Jesus when no one else sees Him

"Some people became discouraged. They began to doubt the value of their struggle and started questioning it. They withdrew from the world towards God, to whom they thought they had been unfaithful and found ‘refuge’ in prayer. They hoped to find among their friends or in the depths of their own hearts, an oasis of peace. They thought they would encounter an accommodating God who would apply balm to their wounds.

"Other people were stimulated by difficulties and became obsessed with the idea of saving the world. They were possessed by a mysterious, blind violence and threw themselves, heart and soul, into the battle. In so doing, they turned their eyes away from God. At first, they told themselves: ‘We’ll find God later, after we’ve won.’ But later, they concluded: ‘This is man’s affair and has nothing to do with God.’"– (This reminds me of Chiz Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano who are obsessed with opposing the administration in their desire to ‘save the country’.)

"Still others have refused to leave their Father’s battlefield without God who sent them, and without the Christ who preceded them. They know that it is together and only together, that the whole victory will be won."

(When Senator Blas Ople, an oppositionist, was invited by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to join the Cabinet after EDSA 2, his detractors pounced on him that he is ‘balimbing’. His firm response was a quotation from the late President Manuel L. Quezon: ‘My duty to the party ends where duty to the country begins.’ GMA’s faithful defender Michael Defensor, the generals and Ed Angara are trying to lead the way with their TEAM UNITY.)

"They know that He is alive, that He is risen, that He is working at their side in the world and in the hearts of men. But, it is hard to see Jesus when no one else sees Him."

Loving one’s brother today

We come to realize that some of us, despite our ‘commitment’, have never gone beyond a very limited concept of charity. We are all aware of the importance of being solicitous for our neighbor’s welfare, of exercising care in our interpersonal relationships, of giving ourselves totally to others. However, we should remember the unconditional commandment of love.

"Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?... ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:36-40)"

The love of our brothers is an infallible test of our love of God. ‘Anyone who says, I LOVE GOD and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God whom he has never seen’ (I John 4:20).

The opposing young Turks say they love our countrymen, but as they sling mud at the existing government, they are actually jeopardizing the nation, especially the 70% poor and illiterate Filipinos.

Loving our brothers does not mean loving them with our emotions

"To love our brothers does not mean that we must love them with our emotions, or that we must be ‘sentimental’ about them, for Jesus commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)." To love our brothers means that we must wish for their true good and that we must do all that we can with them to obtain that good. This requires an effort, which assumes total self-forgetfulness.

To love our brothers does not necessarily mean pleasing them. On the contrary, it means that we must be capable, if necessary, of making them suffer for their own good. Therefore, we must sometimes be willing to fight them, individually and collectively.

Who among Opposition candidates can make the supreme sacrifice of self-forgetfulness for the Filipinos’ sake? Who of them have the courage to stand firm in spite of the strong criticisms that will bear on them?

What does it mean today to feed the hungry?

What does it mean today, to feed the hungry? Does it mean to invite the old lady next door to merienda or to collect cans of milk for Bicol or Leyte? Yes, it means those things, but more than that, it means to work for a decent living-wage for all, for fair prices, for job opportunities, for unemployment compensation, for pension plans, for job training, among others.

We must recognize that the spirit can also be hungry. To feed the hungry spirit means to work for equal education for all, equal opportunities, decent schools and effective curriculum.

To make strangers welcome means to open one’s home to others, but it means above all to provide decent housing for the poor. It means to participate in tenant organizations, as well as to organize recreation for your people in housing developments.

What about ‘visiting the sick’?

Visiting the sick means precisely that, but it also means increased medical benefits, improvement of medical facilities and supporting medical research to the extent that one is able.

To visit the inmates of a prison is a work of mercy. But, it is a greater work of mercy to work for a penal system, which will reform and educate the prisoners, to encourage programs of education and re-education throughout the country, as well as to participate in crime prevention and job finding projects.

One of the best eateries in Bangkok, believe it or not, is the Thai Women’s Prison Cafeteria. Before their release, the female prisoners are kept busy learning good Thai cooking. Their food service outlet is a popular public eatery.

It also means fighting against anything, which imprisons man. That is, fighting on behalf of those who are deprived of their freedom, from individuals who are victims of their own fears to the underprivileged who are collective prisoners of unjust economic, social and political structures.

Charitable acts can be misleading

'Charitable acts’ can be misleading. They may allow us to believe that we are charitable. But, in fact, unless we are willing to take love seriously enough to make a reasonable and humanly effective commitment to the transformation of society, we risk falling under the judgment of God.

Certainly, it is a good thing to help priests in their work by participating in parish activities, but it is not enough, for it does not necessarily involve a commitment.

We cannot do everything, but we must do whatever we can and we must do it in a spirit of faith. It is true that it also requires a commitment to the world in order to belong to a parent-teacher association or to a union, but it is also true that it requires a temporal commitment to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

In other words, it is not enough to give alms. It would be better if you can put up a farm school where you can train the poor farmers in your vicinity, thus, increasing their functional literacy, help improve their produce and thereby earning more. The farm school can also be a trading post where the produce of these small farmers can be collected and sold for them.

The commitment of a Christian differs essentially from that of a non-Christian. We, Christians, because we know what is involved, are privileged creatures. We also bear a double responsibility. Why should we institutionalize our charity by participating in the work of agencies and movement, which are working for the common good? Because Jesus Christ asks us to love our brothers, and because loving our brothers today means creating and implementing structures at every level, which will enable them to grow in justice and in love.

I thought I was a good Christian

Everyone thought I was so kind, so available, so devoted.

And now, you tell me that it was not enough.

It’s hard, Lord, to love a neighbor that I can see;

But it’s even harder to love one that I cannot see.

To work for brothers I do not know, and who do not know me…

In fact, there are many such roads, all intersecting;

They cover mankind, they stretch out into time,

Into what is and what is to be…

I am too slow and too small to love all my brothers.

I am going to join the army of those who are fighting

and who, however painfully, in their organizations

and their movements, their meetings

and their encounters and their battles,

are trying to build a world, Lord, in which man,

free, will be able finally to love…

WHO OF YOU, POLITICAL CANDIDATES, CAN SINCERELY SAY: I AM AVAILABLE, BROTHERS, EVEN THOUGH I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

(Reference: Meet Christ and Live! by Michel Quoist)

(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph or pssoliven@yahoo.com)