Friday, March 28, 2008

EGO SUM MERCES TUA MAGNA NIMIS

N.B. I had the singular grace of being invited as guest of honor at the OSJ College of Philosophy Graduation Ceremonies yesterday, March 27, 2008 in Lipa City, Batangas. I thank my OSJ friends and former students who made the day for me. Below is the text of what I shared with the batch of 10 graduates.


“His itaque transactis factus est sermo Domini ad Abram per visionem dicens: ‘noli timere Abram. Ego protector tuus sum et merces tua magna nimis.” (Gen 15:1)


These are words that could not have been better chosen by the graduating class of this politically, socially, and morally tumultuous year 2008 … words that speak of hope, of confidence, and steadfast faith in the Lord for all of us, just as they did for Abraham of yore. Ego protector tuus sum … I am your protector, your shield … The images conjured by these words of assurance from the Lord is one that is more commonly associated with a struggle, with warfare, with persecution. These words connote care-giving concern for somebody considered the underdog, helpless, and powerless, at least compared to someone else seen as almighty and powerful. The picture presented is one that the whole of Scripture is replete with … God’s mighty hand coming to the rescue of the weak, the feeble, and the voiceless.

The Latin vulgate puts the tense in the present … it is not ero, but sum … “I am” instead of “I will be” … But I was told that in the Hebrew original, there was no verb used at all, which linguistically really means much more stronger than “I am.” From the original, therefore, what really comes out is that there is identity between God and being protector. It is important to note, at the outset, that the reassurance from the Lord is preceded by another, perhaps, more foundational exhortation: “noli timere” … do not fear, Abraham …

My talk, therefore, will revolve around three main ideas. First, I will have to deal with the Fear Factor ... nolite timere. Second, I will have to deal with the Big Brother
aspect of our lives as believers … ego sum protector tuus. Big Brother is not only watching out for you. Father God cares for you and loves you, more than big brother can. Third, I will have to delve on the Wheel of Fortune element of our Christian lives. The reward that awaits us all is out of this world. For this is what “nimis” is all about in Latin – exceedingly great, great beyond expectations, great beyond dreams, far beyond Ramiele Malubay’s great dream of being proclaimed this year’s American Idol.

And now for the Fear Factor … As a priest over the past 25 years, I will have to tell you that life has not been exactly a bowl of cherries. Having been a teacher and educator since 1977, a total of 31 years, I will have to tell you that fear, along with discouragement, have figured in with varying shades of intensity in my life and work. I don’t have to recount to you the details, but fear took center stage in my life on two separate occasions: first, when I was given a death threat a few days after the 1986 snap elections, and, second, when I was held hostage by NPA rebels in the foothills of Mt. Apo in 1989. On those two occasions, I knew how it felt to suddenly realize in the prime of my life as a young priest, how easy it was to die, how my life suddenly hung by a flimsy thread that could easily have been snapped, or cut to oblivion, by people who seemed never to fear anything, nor anyone, not even the God whom I naively thought everybody would at least respect, if not me. I never prayed so much in my life. But fear is the close sister of discouragement and disappointment. I remember how on Dec. 1, 1989, as I feared the worst as the country was being battered by one of the worst, unlamented coup d’etats in our recent history, I was up in the antenna tower of Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong City, observing the progress of the coup at Camp Aguinaldo General Headquarters. I remember how much I cried for my country, brought down almost to its knees, when the Tora-Tora planes started swooping down on the heart of the country’s last bastion of defense. I cried and I prayed … I don’t know at this point which came first, or which I did more of, but I know I was discouraged.

Allow me to share with you this discouragement that my favorite poet Gerard Manley-Hopkins expressed so movingly in words that I’d like to make my own:

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen
justa loquar ad te: quare via impiorum prosperatur? (Jer 12:1)

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,

Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build -- but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

I quote this poem and prayer for the simple reason that the feelings espoused therein were feelings that I espoused time and time again. These days, even as I talk to you, fresh fears and new disappointments cloud the air. Robinson (2004) speaks about how our times are enveloped in “contours of hopelessness” all over. Hopelessness characterizes our days and times like the air we breathe. From the human point of view, when we see how the rest of our neighbors in Southeast Asia have overtaken us, and gone light years ahead of us economically and otherwise, there seems to be no escaping the possibility that, indeed, we are fast becoming, if we have not already become, an accident in the highway of history. With so much politics of the dysfunctional kind providing telenovela-like entertainment in our media-crazed culture, whose centerpiece seems to be “wowowee” of massive cheating notoriety, hope seems to “grow grey hairs” for us. We are filled with a lot of trepidation and fear for the future – fear that translates itself, among other things, into a massive migration mentality. As many as four thousand Filipinos a day vote with their feet, more than 59 per cent of them women, who seek for greener pastures in 95 out of 130 sovereign countries all over the world. Our fear, our disappointment, and our discouragement, along with our dreams for a better tomorrow, goad us on to become the new denizens of the world. But it is precisely in this context, that I would like to remind you … like unto Abraham, the Lord tells you and me today, “nolite timere.”

And now, let us move on to Big Brother. I am fortunate to have been ordained a priest under the watch of Pope John Paul II. When he was elected Pope, I was in my second official year of teaching, as a 22 year old wide-eyed and underweight cleric, teaching young seminarians college English and a smattering of basic Philosophical subjects. When he was installed and given the pallium as Bishop of Rome at the open-air solemn liturgical rites at the Piazza di San Pietro in 1978, his message that came from a solid, stentorian voice of a then very young Pope Wojtyla boomed and resonated for all the world to hear: “Do not be afraid … Be not afraid of God … Be not afraid of man … Be not afraid of yourself … Be not afraid of the Church.” Young as I was then, I thought that that message was prophetic. I held on to it. I treasured it in my heart. One year after, in a talk in Puebla, Mexico, before the Conference of Latin American Bishops, Pope John Paul II repeated basically the same message: “Do not be afraid.” Years later, in 1994, when he wrote “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” the same Pope reiterated what appears to be one emerging leitmotif of his pontificate – hope and courage – twin virtues that he showed with remarkable heroism until the very end of his days, as the whole world now knows.

My dear graduates … you are young … you are idealistic … you are hopeful … you are full of dreams … but I know that you are also filled with not just a few traces of fear and uncertainty in your hearts. Take courage … It is the Lord … not Big Brother, but the greatest Father who is in heaven. In the name of the late Pope John Paul II, I tell you … “Do not be afraid.”

And now, for the third element in our to-do list for today … Wheel of Fortune! Yes … part of our fears and uncertainties really come from what the rest of the Filipino people really feel deep inside. I speak of the Filipino culture of insecurity. Deeply ingrained in our culture through no fault of our own is that nagging feeling that there might not be enough for all of us. Many of us are entertaining fears about the possible shortage of rice, for example, most of it fueled by irresponsible politicians to gain the usual media mileage. A country that used to export rice to all the world is now reduced to literally begging to be sold rice by countries that we trained, countries that we taught how to produce the best rice varieties on earth. You are afraid … you ask questions like “what will become of me? … Will philosophy put food on the table? Should I continue on in the congregation, will I really be fruitful and will I be able to help my family tide themselves over? Am I possibly wasting away my time and inner resources in this congregation?” Many of us long to have the gadgets and the lifestyle that now mark the lives of even the most impoverished among our people. Many of us entertain dreams of making it big somehow, or at least, rising higher than what our parents reached, hoping to become better copies of our own fathers, legitimate dreams undoubtedly. We dream of big and small things, and sometimes the fear that we will become unnamed, unheralded, uncelebrated heroes working ourselves to death in some forlorn parish, in our little corner of the world, can frighten us. At a time when heroes are created at will by the powerful mass media, when so-called “criminals” are tried and condemned by publicity, we feel frightened about being left on the sidelines, being unknown, and not being validated by fame, fortune, and power.

I know how it feels to be frightened of an uncertain future. I have been there. But as a priest and formator for so long, and an educator for much longer, I have something to tell you … By being a religious priest, by being a teacher, preacher, and pastor, the material reward is measly. Sometimes the congregation and the church that you love can make you even miserable – unfairly and unjustly treated by the very institution that you would like to call “mother.” There is not too much money to go around, nor too much fame to spare. There is not much in terms of human consolation, especially when, as you grow older, the individuals you grew up with, begin to follow separate ways, and chart separate destinies. One day, you wake up realizing that the people you laughed with, the individuals you thought were your friends, no longer think as you do, and no longer see things the way you do. You may feel alone, misunderstood, rash judged, and maybe even envied in some way. Most of my former students, including those whom I thought were the most promising ones, have gone their many different and separate ways. Formation work was, and is, a thankless job. At the end of the many years I spent training them, teaching them, and guiding them, they all end up thinking they did it themselves … that they pulled themselves from their own bootstraps … that they pulled it off all by themselves, with perhaps a few exceptions, who, like the ten lepers, can boast of only one grateful returnee. But I can tell you one thing as I look you straight in the eye … I have never regretted any single moment, day, week, month, or year. It was all worth all the effort. And after all those years, given the choice, I would do it all over again. And this for the simple reason that we live, not by sight, but by faith. And our faith tells us, that what we do for the kingdom, will all one day lead to reaping copious fruits that are beyond imagination. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard … The rewards are absolutely out of this world. This is the wheel of fortune I speak about … treasures that no moth can eat, nor rust can destroy.

As you can probably guess, I am trying to lead you towards something important. It is important enough for the present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to be writing the whole world about. Fear Factor, notwithstanding; Big Brother nevertheless; and Wheel of Fortune aside, the challenges of our lives boil down to three things: love, faith, and hope. Benedict’s first encyclical surprised us all. He spoke of something as basic and simple and foundational as love. We need to value our human loves, eros and philia. The former is what he calls “ascending love.” Through ascent and purification, we are called to transcend and reach the level of agape, “descending love” – love like unto God, love like that of God. But as the song that follows would remind us, there is something else we need to do; there is something we all need to know – and invest in:

We all say that love is a good thing
Something we’d all like to know
We don’t understand that it’s easy
To make friends wherever we go.

Tomorrow is something we dream of
But there’s something else we can do.
Let us live now, for tomorrow
Believing our dream has come true

For tomorrow belongs to the children
The children belong to us all
So let us bring love out of hiding
And live like tomorrow is now.

Children/ So let us be friends like the children
They know / there is something to learn from them all
They know the secret of living
They live like tomorrow is now.

For tomorrow belongs to the children
The children belong to us all
So let us bring love out of hiding
And live like tomorrow is now.

For tomorrow belongs to the children
The children belong to us all
So let us be friends like the children
And live tomorrow is now.

The second letter of Benedict XVI is another milestone that would merit our attention as you go forth to your own respective dream and meaning making. Just a day before Advent of Year A, he came out with Spe Salvi. I will have to tell you that I have read the encyclical three times and each time I read it, I cried. Call me a cry-baby, call me sentimental, but I cannot deny the fact that the letter touched me deeply. It gave meaning to all that I have been doing over the past 25 years as a priest, and 31 years as an educator. I would like you to be touched by it as I have been. And I have been touched on account of the riches of hope that the letter offers to a world enveloped, as we said, in the contours of hopelessness.

Among many other things, the Pope refers not only to informative, but to performative hope. It is hope that is active, hope that sets out to achieve what it longs for, a hope that makes real here and now, what we nevertheless await in its total fulfillment. This hope is not based on wishful thinking, but on the solid conviction of faith. This is the reason why he speaks about faith itself as hope. It is ultimately based on the foundation of our solid attachment to a personal God, not just any god, but the God who had a human face, a God who came – and stayed – with us.

The foundation of our hope is that which ought to be residing deeply inside us – our attachment to a personal God who showed His human face in Christ His Son. This is the merces magna whereof Scripture speaks. This is the pearl of great price, the treasure buried deep in the field of our Christian consciousness. This is what is exceedingly, wondrously abundant because it comes from the bosom of God. This is promise par excellence, and fulfillment to the hilt such as only a God of promises and a God of fulfillment can give us. And it is there inside of us in germ, in potentiality, waiting for us to unravel like a precious gift that needs to be unwrapped.

Abram, whose name God changed to Abraham as befits the dignity and utter magnanimity of the gifts that he received, now looms in the horizon of your personal and collective hope as an icon, a beacon, a lighthouse that shows us the way. And what is that way? You are all called to rise up to the challenge of these confusing times, and, claim the riches that are already within you – your faith, love, and hope in God. Like unto Abraham, our father in faith, God now tells you graduates the same thing: EGO SUM MERCES TUA MAGNA NIMIS!

EVERYTHING HAS ITS SEASON
EVERYTHING HAS ITS TIME
SHOW ME A REASON AND I'LL SOON SHOW YOU A RHYME
CATS FIT ON THE WINDOWSILL
CHILDREN FIT IN THE SNOW
WHY DO I FEEL I DON'T FIT IN ANYWHERE I GO?


RIVERS BELONG WHERE THEY CAN RAMBLE
EAGLES BELONG WHERE THEY CAN FLY
I'VE GOT TO BE WHERE MY SPIRITS CAN RUN FREE
GOT TO FIND MY CORNER OF THE SKY

EVERY MAN HAS HIS DAYDREAMS
EVERY MAN HAS HIS GOALS
PEOPLE LIKE THE WAY DREAMS HAVE OF STICKING TO THE SOUL
THUNDERCLOUDS HAVE THEIR LIGHTNING
NIGHTINGALES HAVE THEIR SONG
AND DON'T YOU SEE I WANT MY LIFE TO BE SOMETHING MORE THAN LONG

RIVERS BELONG WHERE THEY CAN RAMBLE
EAGLES BELONG WHERE THEY CAN FLY
I'VE GOT TO BE WHERE MY SPIRITS CAN RUN FREE
GOT TO FIND MY CORNER OF THE SKY

SO MANY MEN SEEM DESTINED
TO SETTLE FOR SOMETHING SMALL
BUT I WON'T REST UNTIL I KNOW I'LL HAVE IT ALL
SO DON'T ASK WHERE I'M GOING
JUST LISTEN WHEN I'M GONE
AND FAR AWAY YOU'LL HEAR ME SINGING SOFTLY TO THE DAWN:

RIVERS BELONG WHERE THEY CAN RAMBLE
EAGLES BELONG WHERE THEY CAN FLY
I'VE GOT TO BE WHERE MY SPIRITS CAN RUN FREE
GOT TO FIND MY CORNER OF THE SKY...


With riches so great as our God is, why settle for something small? Why call yourself a rivulet when you could be a mighty river? And why think of yourself as a chicken when you can really soar like an eagle? With God behind Abram, now called Abraham, who would choose to remain in Ur? Armed with the obedience of faith, along with the boldness of love, and the audacity of hope, Abraham went forth to forge God’s dream and turn it into reality. That dream spanned the skies, and went beyond merely numerous. No … they were uncountable, as many as the sands on the seashore. Such was the greatness of God’s dream for him and his descendants forever. Pippin, as the song we just heard, reminds us, was called to reach out for his corner of the sky. With riches such as God has given, and continues to give you, it is not just a mere corner of the sky that you are called to pursue. No … you are destined for greatness like Abraham was. And God now gives you His famous promise: “EGO PROTECTOR TUUS SUM ET MERCES TUA MAGNA NIMIS!”