Good Samaritan-Pinoy

Today’s Gospel reading is all about the Good Samaritan, as narrated by Christ Himself. A man was robbed of his belongings and beaten up by robbers, who left him on the road half-dead. No less than two men passed by, one after the other, who simply ignored the poor victim. A third one, who was a traveling Samaritan, came by and was moved with compassion upon seeing the helpless victim. He did all he could to save and care for the man. Such was the story of the Good Samaritan. This was incarnated par excellence in the person of Jesus Himself, who out of deep compassion went out of his way to reach out to anyone and everyone who needed His help ? from a leper, to a blind man, to a grieving parent, to a hungry mob of five thousand people.

All that was many centuries ago. As disciples of Christ, let us re-incarnate it with the contemporary story of the Good Samaritan-Pinoy. On the national level no less, our newly-elected President gave up his quiet life and privacy, to courageously respond to the national call of servant-leadership, where his every move is under the public eye and scrutiny.

In his inaugural address, Pres. Noynoy committed himself to bravely face the two biggest problems of our country: poverty and corruption. His campaign slogan was precisely on this: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” With his newly-appointed cabinet, composed of dedicated and honest citizens, God will certainly lead him to work for the common-good. “Ang ating pangunahing tungkulin ay ang magsikap na maiangat ang bansa mula sa kahirapan, sa pamamagitan ng pagpapairal ng katapatan at mabuting pamamalakad sa pamahalaan….walang lamangan, walang padrino, at walang pagnanakaw.” As fellow-citizens of this one and only country that God gave us to love and care for, let us support our President sa abot ng ating makakaya.

The Good Samaritan-Pinoy is in fact active in many social organizations that are reaching out to the poor. In a recent book entitled For the People, With the People, editor Ma. Regina M. Hechanova-Alampay collected eight organizations of social entrepre-neurship as described by their respective authors. Let me just single out a few, due to our limited space.

Kamay Krafts Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Groups of women from the slum communities in Bulacan, Rizal, and Quezon City are successfully producing attractive bags made of recycled materials from garbage dumps, and exported to Europe and the United States. “The success of the venture has resulted in significant improvement in the lives of the women and their families…” From a handful of mothers, the cooperative now has 300 members, coming from Project 8, Bagong Silang, Philcoa, and Payatas.

Hapinoy. The Business Partner of the Poor. This is a mutually beneficial partnership of local manufacturers and microentrepreneur owners. Its objective is “to empower sari-sari stores by linking them directly to partner product manufacturers, including small and medium-sized manufacturers through capacity building and through the community support generated by the network. It provides benefits to the sari-sari store owners in many ways from greater income to character and values formation.”

Gawad Kalinga. Who has not heard about this phenomenal, God-inspired movement, motivated by faith and love for the poor! Not only by building decent homes for them, but also leading them to relationship-based community develop-ment. This includes “health education, community empowerment, environment and infrastructure, and values formation.” GK has spread, not only in different parts of the Philippines, but also in different countries of the world.

This also brings us to my last example of the Good Samaritan-Pinoys in the persons of many Filipino migrants and OFW’s all over the world. Many, if not all of them, indirectly evangelize and spread God’s kingdom through their faith in God, love for their families, and dedication in their work. Quite a number of their unsung testimonies and life-experiences are now immortalized in a recent book edited by Fr. Remo P. Bati, SDB, and entitled: Light from Pinoys on the Move. Fr. Bati was the first Filipino chaplain for OFW’s for almost 11 years.

One testimony was that of Annie, from Leyte, who landed as a domestic helper in Italy. Her married male employer gave her gifts from time to time, showed her signs of affection, until one day, he attempted to have sex with her. She heroically resisted, left the house, and never went back. For her, “purity is of much greater value than money.” This is just one of the many Good Samaritan-Pinoys among our OFW’s and migrants in different parts of the world.

To conclude: Each one of us is called by God to be a Good Samaritan-Pinoy, in whatever way we can, according to our individual gifts and charisms. This is our unique contribution to the global community.