BELOW THE LINE
By AMBASSADOR JOSE ABETO ZAIDE
Ambassador José Abeto Zaide
Last Monday, 16 December, at 4:30 morning on the first day of Simbang Gabi, Fr. Rafael dela Cruz, SDB (Salesian of Don Bosco), tried to wake up sleepy heads with a couple of knock-knock jokes:
First “Knock, knock!”:
“Who’s there?”
“Belen”
“Belen who?”
“BELEN mo ito…BELEN mo iyon…BELEN mo lahat ng gusto mong BELEN at sayang BELEN ng pera mo.”
Fr. Dela Cruz aka Padre, (a concoction of Padre + Rey), said that for some, this is probably what Christmas is all about - CHRISTMAS SALE. CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. A Christmas of buying presents and gifts. A commercialized Christmas.
***
Second “Knock, knock” joke:“Who’s there?”
“Belen.”
“Belen who?”
“Ha-BELEN ni Lord: “As I have loved you, so you much love one another! Loving one another. Serving each other. Washing each other’s feet. Pagmamalasakit sa kapwa. Being there for each other. Extending a helping hand to the least, lost, and last. This is the true meaning of Christmas!”
The Good Father reflexively pulled off-the-cuff Biblical quotes: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14
“Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, dwelt among us. He shared our human life in order to save us from our brokenness and lead us to share in God’s life and love.”
Padrey said that Christmas is not about “presents.” It is about OUR PRESENCE to someone, our malasakit-filled presence to each other.
He said that there are two ways of being present. One is to be physically present, but passive. A presence that is uninvolved, disengaged, indifferent. And even (at times) smarting at one’s neighbors.
Or one can be ACTIVELY PRESENT. It’s a presence marked by “malasakit”. It is an involved presence, a presence for another. It is being there for the other most specially in their time of need. The type of presence that leads to an encounter of persons.
The Good Father remembered that when he was an 8-year-old toddler, a beggar used to come and visit to ask for help. He was a Bicolano whom his mother probably met at Sta. Cruz Church in Manila and always gave a meal on his visits.
Fast-forward to today: Padrey realized on hindsight that there was something amiss in that image of this needy person feeding at their family dining table: He was eating alone. There was no one sharing the table with him. Sure, everyone in the family had his repast. Yet one or two of us could have joined that beggar at table, because every family meal is a shared meal. We call it a “salu-salo” and not “solo-solo.”
It is not enough to help someone, if helping someone stopped at simply providing “something” for someone without encountering that someone as person.
After the mass, I thanked the Good Father for his homily and the moral lesson about sharing a table and doing the Christian thing for one another. But I said that the moral lesson was heard by only half of our village.
Padrey said that he noticed the empty pews. He wasn’t sure if the community hall which doubles as chapel was half empty, or half full. Because half the village had stayed away. Politics is always serious business; but local (intramural) politics can be even more divisive.
Padrey is wise to the ways of our imperfect world. He said that he will be saying Misa de Gallo in other venues in the succeeding days. But he will remember our village and the community with special prayers for discernment and the wisdom to see beyond our petty intramurals.
Despite all the catechism and the good-manners-and-right-conduct we have been schooled to, there are times when it takes so much more gumption to do the real Christian thing. We are taught to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet, because we are no angels but mere mortals, we can find ourselves in awkward situations, in this season of joy, to have a compartmentalized Christmas. In this day and age, someone should come up with an eureka idea for a clearing house to take inventory of real and imagined trespasses. Sometimes, we just have to dig deeper. Because there isn’t a better occasion (or location) to wish nears and dears and our community the Blessings of Christmas and the Happiness of the New Year 2020!
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