Faith, hope and love

The current must-read is, of course, Gracia Burnham’s In the Presence of My Enemies, copies of which have been flying off bookstore shelves as soon as they are put in. The book has been making headlines because of its "revelations"–a military general demanding half of the ransom money, soldiers supplying the kidnappers with food and ammunition, hostages allowed to "escape" after ransom was paid, female hostages betrothed or wedded to the kidnappers ("sabaya-ed"is what they call it)... all of which have been whispered and speculated about for a long time, but never satisfactorily answered.

Now it’s all in print, and Gracia Burnham finds herself in the center of another maelstrom. This time at least she’s safely in Rose Hill, Kansas, out of reach of those who may still wish her ill. She has prudently chosen to seal her lips, nipping in the bud any plan for yet another Senate investigation (the first one cleared everybody, remember?) with her as star witness (she won’t even give a deposition, short-circuiting any plans of junkets to Kansas to interview her–sayang, no?).

Hers is without doubt a gripping tale, a first person account of an experience most of us cannot even begin to imagine and which we fervently hope we will never have to go through. She has said that she wrote it to tell Martin’s story, and that it is a story of faith, hope and love.

It is all that, but it is too an up close look at one facet of a very complicated situation. Reading the book we must keep in mind that it is but one perspective; it is Gracia’s experience of those awful 376 days–what she could see, hear and understand (with her language limitations), no doubt honest and as factual as she can remember, but it is not the whole picture as she obviously was not privy to many things, such as discussions among the Abu Sayyaf, the true nature of phone conversations (like the one supposedly between Sabaya and President Arroyo), the deals made...

The book raises more questions than it gives answers, and we will probably never get the whole truth behind many of those troubling issues. The questions about the military, ransom (who paid how much and through whom), possible collusion–these we can speculate about and make do with chismis; but to the other questions–about faith and one’s relationship with God, about evil and justice, about vengeance and forgiveness, all of which both Gracia and Martin had to deal with–we will have to find the answers in the depths of our soul.