FOOD TO FAILURES; FRIENDSHIP TOWARDS THE UNFRIENDLY; SALVATION TO SINNERS
3rd
Sunday Easter (B)
April 22,
2012
I don’t know whether being sort of failures in this rat-race
world, as the Philippines, apparently is, has to do with believing. I don’t
know whether being low on the economic ladder necessarily translates to being
high on the belief scale. But as every student of research knows, correlation
does not necessarily mean causation, and poverty, or being collective failures
in the political and economic scene, ought not be taken as the cause of our
very high belief index.
A recent US write-up puts the United States and the
Philippines as among the countries who believe most in God, with the former at
81 per cent, and the latter at 94 per cent. The US have had a long history of
prosperity. The Philippines have had a long story of collective poverty and
political pain. The overwhelming majority of both countries claim to believe in
God.
Why do I write about this on this third Sunday of Easter?
Simple … the Gospel passage from Luke, whilst sounding eerily like the Gospel
passage last week, adds a further detail … The Risen Lord asks for food (some
fish), and eats with his disciples. He breaks bread with frightened seeming
failures all, who followed him and his teachings until He was put to death via
summary execution.
I don’t know how much longer the US and the Philippines and
other countries who top the list of believers in the world can hold up to the
various “hungers” that the world now presents. For one, there is hunger for
supremacy. The North Koreans are offended that the rest of the world did not
look too kindly at their incursions into space, firing off a rocket that
disintegrated two minutes into the flight, threatening “war” against what they
call “traitors.” China is bullying the Philippines and the rest of those who
hold stakes at uninhabited shoals more than a thousand miles away from them,
and just less than two hundred miles away from the Philippines.
There, too, is the hunger of unrest in mid-eastern countries,
heretofore, bastions of stability under dictators, but now teetering on edge on
account of a new wave of enlightened, digitally managed “revolutions.”
Consequentially, for poorer nations like the Philippines who are heavily
dependent on oil, the unrest of insecurity and instability owing to
unmanageable inflation and the rising prices of basic commodities, begins to
rear its ugly head, threatening other forms of instability in a people who, for
the most part, are living a hand-to-mouth existence for more than half a
century.
Like the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, we are more
than just frightened. We are also hungry … uncertain … full of questions and
all.
But wait … We also believe eminently that there is a God. We
are a people blessed with a strong faith, even if, at times like these, faith
in Him seems all we have, when everything else, including faith in a
dysfunctional political system, and in a corrupt-laden system of leadership and
governance, all seems to follow the way of the fearful disciples huddled
together in the Upper Room.
We are hungry. We are suffering. We are uncertain, and we,
definitely, are also frightened.
This is the backdrop of today’s good news. The Risen Lord
appears to the same fearful and uncertain bunch of believers. But I take it you
noticed, that being fearful does not necessarily mean being unfaithful. I take
it you noticed, too, that being frightened and uncertain does not necessarily
translate to being unbelievers, even as, in the case of the United States,
being prosperous does not necessarily mean people no longer should believe in
God, that they can do most everything without God, and that a prosperous life
is an automatic block to believing.
I got this piece of good news for you … The Risen Lord comes
precisely to the aid of those who are frightened and fearful. And what is his
response to this? He asks. He begs. He requests the help of those who seemed
helpless, the seeming failures, the frightened disciples who were deep in confusion.
He asks for food. And wait … he does more … He eats with them … reminiscent of
the breaking of bread at the Last Supper … reminiscent, too, of the breaking of
bread with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus.
I am frightened. I am fearful. Uncertainty still hangs heavy
in the air … everywhere in the world. A politics of vengeance fills the daily
news where I am. A politics of parties with the horns of opposition and
rebellion locked neatly in a perpetual struggle characterizes the life of
people in many countries. Bullying and political terrorism seem to be the run
of the day.
But lest we forget ... We are not just fearful. We are,
also, sinful. We are sinners. And sinners are not very friendly to God. We make
unjust laws, and if we had just laws, we skirt around them. We are corrupt ,
and corruption happens in our country from top to bottom, even if we lay blame
only on certain big fish, and are vociferous against them, partly to cover up
for our own sinfulness.
We believe in a Risen Lord, but we are not necessarily risen
in our failures. We are not necessarily fed in our hungers. Many of us, claim
to believe, and yet not strive to belong. Many of us believe in a personal God,
but not in a God who chose to act in and through a Church, a community of
believers, where believing ought, first and foremost, show itself in total
belonging.
The Risen Lord reminds us once again. “Peace be with you.”
He asks us, then, and now: “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in
your hearts?” From the hungry, He asks for food. To the failures, he offers
food and camaraderie. To the unfriendly, He proffers the intimacy of friendship
that can only come from the Eucharist – the fractio
panis, the ritual and sign of the breaking of the bread. To sinners, He
continues to offer salvation.
That is who we are … hostile and unfriendly … fearful and
sinful … The Good News to people like us? … food to failures; friendship to the
unfriendly, and salvation to sinners!
“Lord, let your face shine on us!”
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