May 31, 2020, Pentecost *Overcoming Our Fears

Dss. Norma P. Dollaga, KASIMBAYAN

Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
Acts 2:1-11
1Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

It is a courageous act to admit recognize that we are afraid. Great people- heroes, and martyrs alike , and those who are willing to give their lives for the sake of others are people who acknowledge their own fears and anxieties. Upon the death of Jesus, his disciples were together collectively feeling the chilling effect of the state/empire terror. Their leader was slapped with trumped-up charges, he was arrested, humiliated before the public and meted with capital punishment (death penalty) by hanging on the cross. The once leader who healed the sick, and preached radically about God’s Kingdom, who saved the woman from stoning to death, who exalted the humble and meek, who was in the company of the dirty, marginalized and outcasts is now dead. He, the champion of the poor who critically engaged the ruling system and never shown any favorable -patronizing attachment with the hypocrites and powerful is now gone. His disciples must be weary and anxious. They could be the next victim of the terror. If the intention of the empire is to eliminate its perceived enemy, the logic was to “get them all.”

The disciples were afraid. They could not deny their close association with him. I was dangerous then to be identified with Jesus. that The security information must have done a dossier of them and their whereabouts. Besides, the state must have suspected them that they were hiding the body of Jesus.

They were hiding, as a way to handle their own fear. The fear is borne out of reality that they could be apprehended .and attacked at anytime. They rather not expose their vulnerability . They still have a mission to carry on. In the mean time taking a side step was a wise decision.
However, fear did not immobilize them. The Spirit –the Life-giving-Power , the resurrection had given them hope and overcome their fear. The fear was replaced by PEACE. They received the SPIRT ( he BREATH) – the power that will transcends their worries and anxieties- which came upon them. They were not forever lock downed by fear and side-step. The “retreat” was just temporary , and they went ahead with the work and the mission . Perhaps they were still afraid. The enemy must constantly watching their moves. The church was founded by faithful disciples who were given the power of Spirit and the message of Resurrection to carry on what was entrusted by them,
And so, we still have prophets and missionaries who in the midst of fear and error of the empire, are steadfast in their calling. The church ,the movement of prophets and believers of God’s Kingdom is a testimony that the teaching of the righteous , the love of humanity and genuine interest to serve the people will never die. It as like the message of the hymn by Frederick William Faber,1849:
“ Faith of our fathers (ancestors) ! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword.
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers (ancestors) , holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.”

Today, we seem to be swimming in the river of our tears. We are both mourning and angry. We hunger and thirst for justice. We do not even want the breathe in the air that being breathe out by the tyrant and the murderers. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in U.S.A enraged us all. He was a black man who died after a policeman kneel on his neck brought unspeakable pain and anger . The killing of humanitarian activist Jory Porquia manifest a glaring callousness and impunity in the time of COVID 19 pandemic and lockdown . Her daughter was one amongst detained when her group would offer an memorial honor for him . Her daughter said that the case of his father has not been investigated, yet the mass arrest of those who would mourn for his father had been filed on the court. Today, we have heard a sad news about the killing of Carlito Badion a leader of KADAMAY , an urban poor organization. His body was found along the highway of Ormoc City on May 28,2020Prior to hos murder he had receiving harassments and threats, the military red-tagged him and eventually silence him. But their dead bodies still speak to us. We see the people heeding their voices, resurrecting them through our bodies.

We are like the psalmist who once said. “ Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD” (Psalm 130:1b).

WE suffer much from this impunity. Like the disciples of Jesus , we feel how dangerous it is to transform our grief and anger into prophetic action. But like the disciples of Jesus, they were given the power to keep the mission going. There will be an assurance of PEACE in our hearts . In the name of those who suffer from bigotry, discrimination and exploitation, the Spirit will empower us to pursue the cause of overcoming evil lurking within the systems of our society. The inspiration of the life, work, ministry and mission of Jesus will be the LIGHT that will guide us. Those who went ahead of us who dared and risked their lives for the sake of others will be our inspiration to carry on. They shall live in our hearts and in our daily prophetic and pastoral work.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
As we are mourning and grieving
The deaths of many people–
Young, old, and vulnerable ones.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
When we are anxious and scared
From a disease caused by a virus,
Unseen to our eyes yet occupying bodies.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
When we are angry and enraged
With a hostile policy that is anti-poor,
Leading the lowly into greater vulnerability.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
As we repent for our insensitivity
And privilege of having more
That led us to blend thoughts and perceptions
In a discourse of resilience and obedience to laws,
Now weaponized against our own people.

Awaken us to our connivance
with anti-poor policies.

Help us to see that
We benefit because we have means,
We are secure and privileged
Even with a semblance of a vacation.

Raise our awareness that
This lockdown in poor communities
Means suffering, hunger, and tears,
Even as we preach sacrifice for the benefit of all.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
As we pray for those who care for the sick and dying
And those who look for cures and scientific explanation.
Release us from ignorance and myths
that may proclaim what is factual and true.

Breathe on me, Breath of God
As we demand a medical approach to a health crisis,
As we clamor for free testing and health services for the ill,
As we assert a rights-based approach to this problem.

Breathe on me, Breath of God—
Spirit, Ruah, She Who Hovers Over,
The MOVEMENT THAT NEVERS EXPIRES,
Movement like the Wind
That cannot be locked down.##

May 31,2020*Pentecost*Together in one place

Patis Mungcal, NCCP

Psalm 104:1,24, 29-31, 34
Acts 2:1-11
1 Cor. 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

Our reading from Acts greeted us with this line. Being in the n^th day in lockdown because of the COVID-19, this line made me ache for a sense of togetherness. Although we have made strong efforts to maintain our sense of community from distance and in isolation, I am sure that I’m not the only one in need of a warm-bodied fellowship to grieve and weep, express compassion, and envision the better normal we deserve.

In a stronger sense, we are still in one place. We may not be together, but we are living in one place. We are living in a place of vulnerability and uncertainty. We are in a place of fear and hopelessness, of anger and frustration. And in this place, we are striving to cultivate compassion and hope.

But although we are in one place with a common threat, we are still facing different hardships and struggles. For the most of us, this place is a place of hunger where in order to get food, there is a high risk of being arrested. Meanwhile for some, the comfort of affording to go to groceries or availing food delivery services still exists. Most of our kababayan are forced to work just to have something to eat and are practically being sacrificed at the altar of profit, to keeping the economy rolling. (Imagine, profit at the expense of peoples’ lives!) While some could stay comfortably in their own homes and even shout with utmost delight, “Ang sarap ng buhay!”

It is even baffling to see that in the thick of the pandemic, while we are almost immobile because of the lockdown and blinded with false information and confusion, our sisters and brothers are still suffering the ruthless dog-eat-dog world outside. There have been reports of killings in urban poor communities in Metro Manila. Arrests and killings related to the drug war continue, and now detentions allegedly because of “quarantine violations” became rampant. These happen amid the resounding call of the international community to release prisoners to combat the spread of the virus in prison and detention facilities.   

It is also beyond disturbing to still see and experience false allegations and malicious accusations against cause and service oriented organizations in the form of red-tagging and arbitrary arrests. Just on Friday night, a State task force released a malicious list that red-tags various legal organizations, including the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. This came urgently after the amendments on the Human Security Act, known as the Anti-Terror Bill, was passed at the House Committee level. The travesty!

In this place we are in, we find ourselves facing not just the pandemic but also government neglect and corruption (excessive use of power) and state-sponsored attacks.

Here, just like the disciples in the Gospel of John, we find ourselves huddled together longing to hear the words, “Peace be with you!” We are longing for the day we finally survive this. Waiting for him to breathe on us. But as Christians pursuing the vision of earth as it is in heaven, we know that the peace we desperately need won’t be simply handed over to us. For this, we need justice. We should know by now that there is no peace without justice.

In the reading of Acts, we saw a vibrant scene of speaking of tongues, how daring. This reminds me of a story from their ancestors when tribes were scattered in Babel with different languages. They were blabbering and no one understood them. But here in the reading, people were utterly amazed by how they are familiar and immediately connected with the language of their leaders.

I hope this story of the Pentecost compels us to speak the tongues of the people, as what our current pandemic situation demands. As we continue to live every day under the pandemic, as followers of the God of justice, I hope that we may never give in to the temptation to be silent and be complacent as the State and the ruling class slowly reveal to us the “new normal” that would only selfishly favor their interests. If we don’t learn to speak the tongues of the people, if we don’t shout with them their calls #MassTestingNow, #AyudaNgayonNa, and #SerbisyongMedikalHindiMilitar, we fail to do our crucial role as church-people.

Therefore I invite you to listen to the cries of the people in order to speak the tongues of the people. We must feel the oppression of the people. In the face of fear and uncertainty, us Christians are being compelled to step up, speak out, and act together. Out of chaos and suffering, God birthed the Church. And so in this time of struggle, may the Church with the people give birth to a “new normal” that is founded upon justice and peace.

May this be our united prayer and mission.##

Photo : https://revlisad.com/2019/05/03/what-i-need-john-20/

May 24, 2020, 7th Sunday of Easter * God is with us, let this be our prayer

Br. Ritche T. Salgado, O.Carm.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/biteintheapple/fragments/

Psalm 27:1, 4, 7-8
Acts 1:12-14
1Peter 4:13-16
John 17:1-11

The quarantine caused us so much grief. We lost a lot, including our routines, our comforts, and for many, their jobs and their source of livelihood. They basically lost the source of their livelihood, have been reduced to begging in order to survive. Beg from their neighbors, beg from the church, and even beg from the government to provide them food and other essentials, when in reality the government promised to take care of those in need in this time of crisis. Empty promises. Pandemic has led us to collective grieving, as psychologists would call it.

But the sad part really is, many of us who have lost a loved one in this time of a global health crisis, have been denied the opportunity to grieve.

Serving in one of our parishes in Quezon City, I have seen many grieving families, unable to properly send off their loved one. A group of young boys are now left to fetch for themselves as they lost their mother to cancer. Lockdown without systematic plan for health services has denied their mother of the treatment she needed. She was the only breadwinner, and had we not visited them to deliver aid from the church, we would not have known the tragedy.

I have also heard of a sister who never even had the opportunity to take a last glimpse of his brother because he had to be cremated because it would be hard to transport his remains from Cavite where he worked as a security guard, to their house in Quezon City. Unable to buy his maintenance medicine because of the lockdown, he died of a heart attack, on the job.

Where is God amid the pain that this global health crisis is causing us?

Churches are closed and we seem to have lost touch of our faith. Devotional practices as our means of communicating our love for him are affected .We feel empty, we feel lost, we feel that we have been forgotten.

Today is the last Sunday of Easter before Pentecost Sunday.

In the Philippines, we celebrate this Sunday as Ascension Sunday, which traditionally is celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday, technically a Thursday. Today, our reflection would focus on the readings of the seventh Sunday of Easter, which brings us to that time after Christ ascended into heaven. So what did the disciples do?

Our first reading (Acts 1:12-14) tells us that they returned to Jerusalem and went to the upper room of the place where they were staying and together, in one accord, devoted themselves to prayer together with the dear mother of Jesus, Mary, whom the Carmelites look up to as mother and sister.

Jesus is no longer with them, and although they were happy, confident of the resurrection of Christ, confident that death has been conquered, confident that they are saved, a chosen people, but what now? They were lost, they did not know what to do.

Prayer is an attitude that they got from Jesus, to contemplate in their hearts the events that happened in their lives in order to discern, to listen to the voice of God, to know what God is telling them.

This is also the attitude of Mary, who, in every event of her life, we always hear her keeping these events in her heart.

As if to answer their prayer, our Gospel today reveals to us the prayer of Jesus for himself and his disciples, which he shared with his disciples during the Last Supper. This is called the High Priestly prayer.

He has not forgotten them, God has not forgotten them, but the disciples at the time didn’t take notice of Jesus’ prayer because it carried a different meaning for them at the time. Jesus was still with them.

In this prayer we hear Him speak how much He knows the Father and how much his disciples know him. To know the Father is to know him and in him we know the will of the Father.

But in this prayer, it is vital that we look at the last passage: “And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you,” so Father, please protect them because physically I will no longer be with them to protect them.

This is how much God loves us – our life is not ours, and in death, we are not ours; we are the Lord’s. (cf. Romans 14:8). And God’s love is such that He will not abandon us, he will not leave us to suffer. (cf. Hebrews 13:5-6, Isaiah 41:10, 1 Peter 5:7). But the disciples didn’t remember.

From the beginning Jesus has been preparing them to this day and today we are reminded of this.

As we face the challenges of this health crisis and the tragedy that the quarantine has caused many of our brothers and sister in the margin – the abuse of our most basic human rights, the neglect of government officials of our most basic needs, the sacrifices that we had to unnecessarily endure because of the disregard of those in power – in all these, God is with us and he has not abandoned us in our struggle to pursue social justice in addressing the pandemic.

But how can we tell this to our brothers and sisters who are suffering?

Let us be the feet of God, go to those who are in need. Let us be the hands of God, share and give whatever little that you have to those who are most in need. Let us be the mouthpiece of God, denounce that which brings pain and sorrow to our brothers and sisters in the margins.

As Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana said, “COVID means we must listen to the “cry of the poor,” including the unemployed, migrants, all the vulnerable.”

In this time of grief, let us be that source of hope that would allow people to realize that God is with them in their time of pain and sorrow, that God is with us, that God will not allow injustice to be the new normal.

Let this be our prayer.##

May 17, 2020, 6th Sunday of Easter*If You Love Me, Do Your Chores

 

Weena Salvador Meily, AWIT( Association of Women in Theology)

Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
1Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21

When I first learned to be responsible, I became aware of the consequences of my actions. At a very  young age, about 6 years old, I knew chores. My mom taught me how to wash dishes, wash my hankies  and underwear (the little things first), sweep the floor, sweep the leaves in the little garden and other things. She would always tell me, “If you love me, you will do your chores.” Wow. That was how we were disciplined during my time in the early sixties. It may sound quite harsh, but we really learned!

 

I have to show through my action that I love. I will act on love.

 

Today, as I approach my senior year, I have always carried with me, that “commandment”. But in a different tone. About two years, before mom passed on, I contemplated how Jesus wanted me to love him. My prayer during the consecration at mass was, ‘Jesus, teach me how to love you as I should’.  Because mine was a dysfunctional family, ‘love’ was difficult to understand. And I want to learn. So, when after that certain mass I attended, I came home to find my mom in a mess. So while cleaning up, wiping, mopping, disinfecting, giving her a sponge bath, dressing her, and changing linens, I found it to be a  breeze! “And so Jesus, if this is how you want me to love you, why, it can be easy!”

 

There were many other similar circumstances that happened. There were times I complained. There were times I  grumbled. But through it all, I would be resilient. Like a bamboo, I would be bent but will bounce back. Ours was a conflicted relationship, my mom and I. But forgiveness we learned to the hilt. We would be exchanging texts of “I forgive you, forgive me”, over and over again. And when it was time for her to go, it was the most sacred moment I have ever experienced. Forgiveness was etched all over her face and as she heaved the last breath, I whispered, “ I love you. Thank you for teaching me to love Jesus.”

 

By the way, it is not a coincidence that it’s her fourth death anniversary on May 20, and I am writing this piece.

I am sure she desires that this little story of reconciliation be sent as good news to all who are in healing relationships. Thank you Mommy. Rest now in God’s heart.

 

Jesus’ discourse in the 14th chapter of the gospel of John, is the first of three farewell discourses touching on the spiritual life. After the washing of the feet, Jesus tells his disciples who lived intimately with him will soon have to accept “another way of living with the risen and present, though invisible, Christ.”  We backread a little into the discourse and in the first verse we find that Jesus knew how human nature operated and so assured them not to be troubled. When we reach our gospel reading for today (14:15-21), Jesus had already made a promise that “Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon my name, I will do.” (14:14) And then, he highlights the very foundation of spiritual life, that is, love (14:15).

 

If I was there, I would protest, “Oh come on, good Lord, you know how difficult your commandment is!  Nope, not easy!” But Jesus knew that and so promises to send a Helper, the Spirit of truth. Then Jesus further underlines the intimacy with God of the spiritual life, “…and you in me, and I in you…and show myself clearly to (you).”(14: 20,21b). This is only possible if one keeps Jesus’ commandment of love. And here, it comes to mind that to love Jesus is to see him in my fellow human being. Remember, “Whenever you did this to these little ones who are my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”(Mt.25:40) This is what nourishes our spiritual life. And the very reason why we do this, is out of love.

The apostles’ love for Jesus is what has moved them to go and fulfill their mission. In our first reading, we see the apostles go about their mission to Samaritans, including laying their hands for the Holy Spirit to descend on them and heal them. We contemplate on the faith of the apostles and their complete trust in God. They came to realize (and we too) that the spiritual and the physical are intertwined. That the spirit and the body are in mutual dialogue and “dance with the music of God’s love”.

 

As we approach the feast of Pentecost, we, as Christians, are called to make manifest the life-giving nature of the Spirit of truth. We are in the midst of pandemics. Not only of a Coronavirus but a pandemic of violence as many of us have been victims of extrajudicial killings, domestic violence, etc. A pandemic of hunger as many of us starve due to unsafe food, food that lack nutrition, and the loss of land to conversion, instead of land for planting food. And lastly, the pandemic of the leadership of lies and deception. “…The biggest crisis of our time is that our minds have been manipulated to give power to illusions. We shifted measuring growth not in terms of how life is enriched, but in terms of how life is destroyed.” (Dr. Vandana Shiva, Indian environment activist, and mother; on rejecting the use of biofuels as green energy.)

 

This is the time to act. This is the time to embrace those suffering in the fringes of society. A time to rise up.

We are called to be a voice of the voiceless. To lift up the lowly, the least, last and lost. We are called to respond to the cry of the poor. And when we have done these, then and only then can we praise, worship, and adore our God and sing, “Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise!”( Ps 66: 1-2).

Because if we truly love Jesus, we will do our chores.##

May 10, 2020 ay 10, 2020* 5th Sunday of Easter*Don’t Be Troubled

                                              Deaconess Sharon David McCart, United Methodist Church 

 

Boy Domingiez’ painting

Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
Acts 6:1-7
1Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

 

 

We are living in difficult times. The threat comes not only from Covid-19 but also from food shortages and extrajudicial killings, of being imprisoned (justly or unjustly) in overcrowded conditions. Too many of us know someone who has died during this pandemic. Too many of us are going hungry. Many of us are without jobs and have no way to buy food even if we could find it. Some of us are ill and unable to get medicine and care.

Against this reality, we may ask about these words that Christ spoke:

“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.” (John 14:1, CEB)

It is difficult to avoid being troubled or worried. Even if we trust in God, we may be anxious. We may wonder even more when we read the next verse, in which Christ says that “I go to prepare a place for you!” Maybe we are not quite ready to go to that place yet!

The disciples were also unable to avoid worry and anxiety, just as we are. Christ had just shared the last supper with them and was saying things they didn’t understand, that where he was going they couldn’t follow now, but they would follow later. They were confused. His words were troubling them. So we are not alone in being troubled in difficult times.

No matter how worried we are by today’s circumstances, we know that people (including many of us!) are taking food to the hungry and caring for others in whatever ways we can, often at risk to ourselves. We are still serving others as we choose day by day, minute by minute to follow Christ. As he went to the cross and as the disciples preached the Gospel in the face of persecution, we are obedient to the command to love our neighbors even when it is dangerous, even if we are afraid.

Christ told us something that we may find hard to believe. He said, “I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12). We may say that only Christ can do great works, that we cannot. But we never know what we can do if we pray and then act. If we “pray with our hands and feet,” we can save lives, we can restore hope, we can be the answer to someone else’s prayer.

When we collect donations that make it possible to feed the hungry, we are multiplying the loaves and fish. When we show that we care about the marginalized by our deeds as well as our words, we can think about it as turning water into wine. When we reach out to the suffering, offering our time and our compassion, we are restoring people to society just as Christ did when he healed the hemorrhaging woman, the lepers, the man living in the graveyard, and more.

The psalmist tells us that God’s love will “deliver their lives from death and keep them alive during a famine.” (Psalm 33:19). We are called by God to love others for this purpose. We are obeying the command to love our neighbors as ourselves by feeding people who would otherwise starve to death.

When we are following Christ, acting as his hands, feet, and heart in this world, we will find hope. When we are serving others, our hearts will be less troubled.

And perhaps we can find a way to sing the Lord’s song in this strange land we find ourselves living in. How can we keep from singing, even in this time of trouble and anxiety? God loves us, calls us, cares for us, strengthens us, guides us. Praise God for his faithfulness to us!

This hymn is in my heart today. It was written over one hundred years ago by Robert Lowry, with words added by Pete Seeger. Maybe it will speak to your heart as well.

“My life flows on in endless song
Above Earth’s lamentation
I hear the real, though far off hymn
That hails the new creation
Above the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I’m clinging
Since love is lord of Heaven and Earth
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear
And hear their death-knell ringing
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?”

 

(Link:   https://genius.com/Pete-seeger-how-can-i-keep-from-singing-lyrics )

 

May 3,2020* 4th Sunday of Easter* Good Shepherd Sunday

Prof. Jerry Imbong, Religious Discernment of the Philippines

Artwork by Renan Ortiz https://www.bulatlat.com/2020/04/21/martial-law-like-lockdown-does-not-combat-covid-19/

Psalm 23
Acts 2:14, 36-41
1 Peter 2:20-25
John 10:1-10

 

In our gospel today, we can find two important figures: first are the thieves and robbers; they are “strangers”, whom the sheep does not recognize. They steal, they slaughter, and they destroy. Second, are the shepherd. The sheep follow him “because they recognize his voice.” The shepherd knows his sheep by name. He is familiar to each one of them: he knows their needs. He is sensitive to their pain and suffering. The thieves frighten and scatter the sheep, hence they get scared and “run away from him”. The shepherd leads the sheep out and they follow him.

 

In this time of pandemic, we can see a lot of good shepherds in our midst. First and foremost are our healthcare workers who selflessly and tirelessly offered their time and professional skills to take care of those afflicted with the dreaded virus. Many of these so-called “frontliners” sacrificed their lives so that others may live. Then there are those who contributed in their own little way to ease the suffering of others. These are the relief workers who volunteered to pack and distribute relief goods to poor families. They are the nameless individuals who cook food in community kitchens to provide food for hungry urban slum dwellers. They are the members of people’s organizations who assert their constitutional right and the tradition of serving the people by bringing food packs to starving farmers affected by the lockdown. They are the few church leaders (priests and bishops) who continue to denounce the injustices committed against the workers especially in this time of health crisis.

 

And then there are the thieves and robbers who slaughter the innocent and defenseless. They are the State forces who consistently prey upon the weak and powerless. They commit various forms of human rights violations: illegal arrest and detention, public humiliation, torture, and killings. Just recently, they arrested ten relief workers who were conducting a feeding program in Marikina City. They are also responsible for the crackdown on activists in Iloilo City on Labor Day where a lawyer, a priest and forty others were arrested. A few days ago, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern over the “highly militarized response” of the Philippine government towards those who have violated the COVID-19 lockdown. The OHCHR recorded a total of 140,000 individuals detained due to quarantine protocol violations.

 

There are also those government officials whose apathy and ineptness on the plight of the people further aggravated the conditions of the suffering poor. They are the pseudo shepherds, sham caretakers who masquerade as “public servants” but are actually remote and unresponsive to the needs of the people whom they are supposed to serve. Their lack of concern for their “sheep” is manifested in their inability to effectively and efficiently respond to the health crisis. Their slow distribution of cash incentives to the “poorest of the poor” are causing hunger and suffering for the many. As of April 29, around 13.6 million of the 18 million low income households still haven’t received the promised emergency subsidies.

 

Among those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ECQ are the poor. They are the low-income Filipinos in poor-quality jobs or precarious work—or work that is insecure, low-paying, without benefits. They are urban dwellers who survive on a daily basis. With the recent lockdown in Metro Manila, these workers also lost their daily subsistence. The poor may survive the dreaded virus but they need to face more chronic problems: hunger, joblessness, and State abandonment and violence. With cash assistance and amelioration programs coming late, they felt neglected, lost and abandoned. They long for a Good Shepherd who will lead them towards “verdant pastures” and “restful waters”. The Belgian theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) posited that our “negative contrast experiences” can evoke in the victims (those who suffer injustice and oppression) a realization of resistance which can lead to liberation. They see in the experience of suffering the possibility of new insight. These negative experiences (enduring oppression) can awaken them to their unjust and inhuman condition. By reflecting on their suffering, they are compelled to struggle to become more fully human. In the words of Schillebeeckx: “suffering challenges us humans to resist its causes on every front!” Meaning can be derived from the experience of suffering. It pushes the victims to protest: “This should not be!” Contrast experiences disclose the difference between the present suffering resulting from a moral evil and a good that calls communities to affirm and realize fully their true humanum. Contrast experiences move them towards a revulsion to the cruel, oppressive, and unjust structures, an affirmation to human rights, and a commitment to defend human dignity. Lastly, negative contrast experiences also serve as a potential source for disclosing something about God; they provide insight into how God acts in human history as they reveal something about human liberation. The Latin American liberation theologian Jon Sobrino says it succinctly: “[the] Kingdom of God appears as good news in the midst of bad things, in the midst of the anti-Kingdom, that is. The Kingdom of God will not arrive, so to speak, from tabula rasa, but from and against the anti-Kingdom that is formally and actively opposed to it.”

 

More than three decades of adherence to neoliberal “free market” policies that treat health care not as basic social service but as a commodity to be sold in the market has further aggravated the deteriorating public health care system in the country, depriving millions of Filipinos access to quality and affordable health care. Indigent patients are seen as consumers who will purchase health care in privatized health facilities. How many patients have died during this COVID-19 pandemic because they are being denied admission to hospitals? How many health care frontliners have been infected and died of COVID-19 because of lack of protective personal equipment (PPEs)? The lives of millions of Filipinos have been adversely affected by economic and political programming that favors market interests, specifically privatization of social and public services like health care. A dysfunctional system of healthcare delivery is but a symptom of a decadent and rotten socio-political and economic system that treats services as commodities and puts profit over people.

 

Pope Francis is consistent in condemning what he calls “mentality of profit” in the field of health services. In his message to the 2020 World Day of Sick, he reminded Catholic healthcare institutions not to “fall into the trap of simply running a business” but instead focus on “personal care more than profit.” Francis provided a structural analysis on the root cause of the marginalization of the poor and the sick and criticized what he calls “oppressive social system” that “neglects social justice out of a preoccupation for financial concerns.”

Amidst the health crisis and economic hardship, the people are clamoring for change. Online calls for #SerbisyongMedikalHindiMilitar are circulating around social media. Netizens are calling for #FreeMassTestingNow and #AyudaHindiBala. Communities and people’s organizations are distributing food packs for poor families. They are organizing online forums and discussions to assert their right to health and defend their political and civil rights. They remain vigilant against the intrusion of “strangers”—pseudo shepherds who steal, rob, and slaughter the poor and defenseless. They remain steadfast, bound by their faith in the Good Shepherd who will never abandon them. The Good Shepherd sustains them in their struggles in the midst of the pandemic, knowing that he came “so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”##