A Holy Thursday reflection

It’s Holy Thursday and we reflect on the hour prior to the Last Supper, as it is for me one of the most important lessons that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches all Christians and it is about Servant Leadership. It is something that you and I have learned throughout our Catholic life, but because of our current political situation, it is really time to stop and ponder and reflect… what happened to us Filipino Catholics? We saw ourselves as one nation just a few months ago last January when our beloved Pope Francis came to visit the Philippines and braved a typhoon signal No. 2 just to be in Leyte.

Then the Philippines made a world record of sort when some six million Filipino Catholics and non-Catholics alike went to Luneta for the Pope’s Mass. When we reflect on that thought and with Filipinos united for one cause… there would be nothing that would stop us from fulfilling our dreams of having a better nation.

But then just a few months after the Pope’s visit, the Social Weather Station (SWS) came up with a new survey (it just makes you wonder who paid for this survey) that said 60% of Filipinos want to have divorce. SWS say that they collated this information from 1,800 respondents. My answer to this question is… “God forgive them for they know not what they do!”

I have always maintained and believed that SWS is “Conditioning the Minds of Filipinos.” That this survey is a preparatory step for Congress to push for divorce in this nation of Catholics and I dare demand from SWS to reveal to the public who paid for that survey! In my book, there should be a law that forces poll firms to reveal who paid for their surveys, because as we have said so many times before, the results of surveys can be “manipulated” by asking the right questions in order to produce the desired results.

I’m glad that Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) insisted that a failed marriage should not be a reason to have divorce laws in this country. With this statement, at least we know that the Catholic Church is fighting back. Perhaps the best way to fight this is to reveal the divorce rates in other countries. I know for a fact that in the United States, half of those that get married end up in divorce. Therefore divorce is not the solution.

The biggest gainers in a divorce are lawyers… and God knows that in this country we have many of them, especially those so-called “Ambulance chasers” who would go to extreme lengths to encourage quarreling couples to go on divorce. The biggest losers of course are the children, many of whom are torn between siding with the mother or father. The lawyers don’t care for these children as they only care for the fees they can get in a nasty divorce.

So as you reflect on Holy Thursday, remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who replied to the Pharisees when they told him that Moses allowed man to divorce his wife in Mark 10: 2-12, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

Now if you believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God, then you should believe in his teaching. More importantly, all our elected leaders, our politicians should read today’s gospel. It is the gospel from John 13: 1-15 that happens just before the Last Supper when our Lord Jesus Christ put a towel around his waist and started washing the feet of his disciples. When he came to St. Peter, the latter asked the Lord, “Why, Lord, do you want to wash my feet?” Jesus replied to Peter, “What I am doing you cannot understand now, but afterwards you will understand it.”

Peter replied, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus told Peter, “If I do not wash you, you cannot have no part with me.” Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said in reply, “Whoever has taken a bath does not need to wash for he is clean all over. You are clean, though not all of you.” After all the washing was done, Jesus said to his disciples, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example, that as I have done, you also may do.”

Many within our Political Elite got themselves on the cry or slogan that they would help the poor Filipino. But the Janet Lim Napoles exposé proves otherwise… that these political elite, 20 Senators and a hundred Congressmen helped themselves to our nation’s coffers to enrich themselves at the expense of the Filipino people. They should learn from our Lord what Servant Leadership is all about… and it means serving our people for their needs, instead of helping enrich themselves from the people’s money.

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