July 26, 2020, 8th Sunday after Pentecost*The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

Cheekai dela Cruz, NCCP

Ps 119:57,72, 76-77, 127-130
1Kings 3:5, 7-12
Romans 8:28-30
Matt 13:44-52

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net

⁴⁷ “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸ When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. ⁴⁹ This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous⁵⁰ and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹ “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.

“Yes,” they replied.

⁵² He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures

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Treasure hunters

What does it mean to find hidden treasures among the filth of today’s world? It probably means everything. Jesus’ words, in this twin parable speaks volumes of what it takes to get that hidden treasure and exchange everything for it. When you find something of great value, one would do everything to own it. For the Kingdom of heaven is like this: “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus’ challenge to the rich man rings true up to now. You cannot be a follower of Christ if you are being consumed by this world.  

But what does hidden treasure mean in today’s context? What does the Kingdom of heaven mean for the people who are constantly suffering under the daily grind of life amid staggering global pandemic? For many believers in Christ, these hidden treasures are those that bring good news to our lives: This means better health system, better socio-economic services to the people, good leadership from the government—all these things are hidden, and seemingly we are at a deadlock of hopelessness and despair in finding these treasures under heaven. But God’s mercy is abundant. And God’s hope never runs out of fashion. The quest for “hidden treasures” that equates to God’s Kingdom drives us to be co-participants in the redemptive work of God. These hidden treasures are meant to be unearthed, if not asserted.

Where do we find these treasures then?

In the thick of things, where our lives are commonly decorated with toxic lockdowns, and characterized with militaristic approach of curbing the pandemic crisis, where do we find our treasures? Where do we find the things that would liberate us from such drudgery and ineptness of the government? Where is hope in all of these? All of these questions compel us toward deep reflection and action. We can rest on the fact that God’s Kingdom is here, it is just hidden. That God’s Kingdom needs to be seen, needs to be found out, needs to be ushered in.

Similar to what the Filipino people experience recently, the denial of franchise of ABS-CBN, was also a denial to the public “treasures”. It seems that the weight of petty angst of politicians is much heavier than the job of the workers, press freedom and the access of public to information.

Now it begs us the question, in looking for treasures, what are the kinds of things that we value? And that we are willing to exchange and lay down to have such treasures? What are our “pearls” that would drive us to pursue it: Is it freedom? Is it health? Is it God’s image in all us? Is it our individual and collective rights? Is it abundant life for all? These beautiful treasures run in contrast to our realities today that they are highly valued, as treasures, as pearls, and that we will do everything to have them. And although the kingdom of heaven may be hidden, it is possible to locate it, and when it is found, its value surpasses that of anything else on earth, and so everything possible should be done to obtain it.

In looking at this, there is that element of active engagement in searching for those treasures. God wants us to “Sell everything”, and go buy the field and buy the pearl. This teaches us a great lesson, that is, if we are willing to seek God’s kingdom, it has a great price of hard work commitment and dedication in pursuant of this. Go sell your possessions, and follow me. Abandon everything, and follow me. Just like how people who are continuously and tirelessly fighting for freedom, for mass testing, for human rights, for junking the Anti-Terror law, seeking God’s kingdom requires the realization of people’s unrequited commitment towards the fulfillment of this.

As Christians, who do God’s work, we are being called to be like treasure hunters–to prioritize the Kingdom of heaven and work for the common good of all persons. God teaches us to focus on the treasures of heaven and earth and what matters most – the dignity of life.  May we rest in the hope that the treasure of God’ reign and justice will be dispensed accordingly as we search for God’s eschatology, where abundant life is a real and pulsating reality for all of us. ##

ART work: https://www.fisheaters.com/parables7.html

Be the Wheat!

The Right Revd Antonio N. Ablon
Iglesia Filipina Independiente – Europe Chaplaincy

Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Romans 8:26-27
Matt 13:24-43

For a farmer, the answer of the landowner, “Let both of them grow together until the harvest” is very disturbing and is unexpected. Naturally, weeds should be taken away from the wheat every now and then. That is what should be the case. In this parable, it is not. Maybe it is expected as it is a parable anyway. The disciples were lucky enough that they could ask Jesus the meaning of the parable and can hear from him directly what does it mean. But for the crowd who listened, they were left puzzled or not to give attention to it. But there must be one group among them that is directly affected and can easily get the idea, the actual landowners of the farmlands in Israel.

In the society of the Israelites, the landowners of the farmlands are also the powerful people who are, if not the leaders of the community themselves, are the collaborators of the leaders including the religious leaders appointed by the czar of Rome. Systemically, they are helped or protected with the puppets of the Roman Empire, the Roman Governor like Pontius Pilate and the Kings like Herod. In place also are the councils – the Sanhedrin – and together with the Roman legions and soldiers, they kept the order of society for the benefit of the rulers.

As the farmers and landowners, the leaders of the land are quick to decide to take away the lives of those whom they considered the weeds in the society – those who they branded as sinners, those who did not follow their will, or those who just did not perform well as their subjects. They are quick to decide who were to be killed, to be imprisoned, and to be sent in exile so to protect the status quo, even at the expense of the people. Among the listeners, the landowners were the most affected because they were acting contrary to the order of the land. Jesus painted and described them as those sowed by the devil.

The landowner of the parable, of course, is God himself who according to the teachings of Israel is the source and the owner of life, the whole of creation, and everything on it. He is not quick to decide but waited with patience until the harvest time to finally separate the wheat from the weeds.

Jesus as the sower, sowed the seeds or the message that in the days to come, those who listened and lived a life according to the will of God will triumph even among the wicked and the evils in the society – who, in this time, were Israel’s landowners, the leaders, and those who are in power.

It should not be understood as just letting the wheat and the weeds grow. But it is a battle between the wheat and the weeds, the people who listened to God, and those who receive orders from the devil. It challenges the Israelites to see the devil’s representatives in their own society and should triumph over them in due time.

In our societies of today, we can easily and vividly see whom Jesus was referring to thousands of years ago. The ownership of land is in the hands of the powerful people – the landed elites, the mighty corporations that exacted money out of the hard labors, sweat, and blood of the oppressed. They are the bureaucrats, the people in the governments who governed as if the fate of the people is in their hands to give or to put to an end. They assumed the role of God who gives and takes life – the God whom we believe is the creator of men, women, and children as the Israelites do. Sadly though, many of these people are believers or claimed to be or maybe pretending to be believers of the God of life. Worse, many of their subjects are also believers and religious but followed their orders, their evil orders against the oppressed people of God who have been suffering for decades from utmost poverty.

We are challenged today to be the wheat sowed by Jesus into the  world. But we can only respond to this challenge when, like Jesus, we know who among our societies are the weeds sowed by the devil. Only then can we begin growing among them. We must then strive to triumph over them and not just wait for the end of time. Let us speak and do like Jesus, who was not only the sower, but the very message and the doer in one. We must act now!

Artwork: http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/pent8mles.htm

July 12, 2020, 6th Sunday after Pentecost* They see, they understand, and they will be healed

Snap Mabanta, Faith, Witness and Service -NCCP

Psalm 65:10-14

Isaiah 55:10-11

Romans 8:18-23       

Matthew 13:1-23

The rain starts to fall every afternoon. The soil starts to get damp and the refreshing shade of green starts to take over in the yard. It is mid- July. Thinking about it, had it not been for climate change, the rain season would have started as early as May. I would remember fondly how my lolo would utter words of thanksgiving to God whenever it would start raining in this month. As a farmer, this would mean he could start cultivating the land again and prepare for the next planting season. He was among those farmers who could not afford a machinated irrigation in order to have water supply all year-round. He would have to wait for the rain so he could prepare his land for the planting season. With this, he could only harvest once a year.

Going to the text, this Sunday’s Bible lesson is describing how the seeds fell into different types of land – thereby affecting the growth and produce of each seed. There were seeds that never grew, there were those that quickly grew but withered, choked, and there were those that grew and produced crops hundred times than what was sown. Thinking about my lolo and other farmers I met, I don’t think they would randomly throw the seeds and let them fall in a place where they will not grow healthily. They would spend the day preparing the land at the onset of rainy season. But no matter how these farmers would prepare their land for a bountiful harvest, oftentimes, they do not have actually land to cultivate, nor farm inputs to use. It has been claimed many times over that the farmers are one of the poorest sectors of the country despite of it being agricultural. And how can they liberate themselves from poverty when lands are controlled by big landlords and oligarchs? Majority of these farmers are landless and mere laborers in farms. From the time when we were colonized, until today, the farmers are deprived and alienated from the lands they till, while the landlords would amass more wealth from the produce. Do we remember the bloody massacre of farmers in Mendiola in January 1987? The Hacienda Luisita Massacre in November 2004? What about the Kidapawan Massacre in 2016? The series of killings of farmers in Negros at the height of Oplan Sauron in 2019? They are stories of how farmers were deprived of their land, and their lives.

The succeeding paragraph of the parable made me a little confused and uncomfortable that I needed to read each word many times over. “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Did Jesus just allow that those who have to have more? And those who have nothing will even be more deprived? All the more these next sentences sounded conflicting inside me.

“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

But no. I do not think farmers will remain not seeing and not understanding. I don’t believe Jesus was meaning to let their conditions remain forever. I would also dare to believe that the soil where the seeds were sown describes the human conditions were we are, where the farmers are. There is this systemic oppressive conditions that are choking us, withering us, and ultimately, killing us, while the rich enjoys the bounty of the good soil. But then, this condition will not stay as it is for long. The farmers are the ones who can see and hear a message that is rooted in the soil. but helps them rise from their oppressive conditions. As part of the prophecy,

For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.

A change is needed to break this cycle of oppression. The people, the farmers, just need to see and understand so that a social transformation will take place. But this will not be easy. As evidenced by history, this transformation might be bloody and painful. Those in power will try to crush and press the people as they start to make demands. Yet the killings of farmers in Mendiola, in Hacienda Luisita, in Kidapawan and in Negros, would tell us stories of resistance to reclaim the lands taken away from them. The same stories would tell us that yes, the people can now see and understand their conditions, and the need to organize themselves to become that giant who will defeat the powers of the rich landlords and oligarchs. The people are now able to see, understand with their hearts, so that healing will start.

In the realization of healing, it must be emphasized that we mean people’s healing from all the systems that have pained us. It is the kind of healing once lands are given back to the farmers and they enjoy their own produce. It is the healing that brings development to the poor. Ultimately, it is the healing that liberates the people from the shackle of oppression and empowers the Anawim.

July 5, 2020, 5th Sunday after Pentecost*Come to Me, and I will Give You Rest

Ms. Hannah Santillan, NCCP

http://www.robynsandanderson.com/exhibit-contrasts-suffering–hope.html

Ps 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14

Zechariah 9:9-10

Romans 8:9, 11-13

Matt 11:25-30

What is rest in this time of pandemic? What is rest for the jeepney drivers who can’t sleep because of hunger and that they can’t provide for the needs of their families? What is rest for the Overseas Filipino Workers who are stranded and are staying under a flyover bridge? What is rest for parents and students who are not able to afford online learning? What is rest for our frontliners when there are not enough PPEs to protect them? What does rest mean for people who are suffering under lockdown and a state-instigated terror?

Commonly, we interpret our text – Matthew 11:25-30, as to let God be “the answer” to all our woes, “Ipaubaya na natin sa Diyos.” or “Tiisin na lang hanggang sa maging maayos ang sitwasyon”. Yet Jesus has a very active invitation in this text rather than inaction or misaction to these sufferings. In verse 25, the “wise” refers to the experts of the law and leaders who displayed their self-centeredness and tyranny. Their refusal to listen have caused them to fail. The “infants” are the common people who are sick, persecuted, “sinners”, and marginalized people who came for healing and life-giving yoke. Jesus thanked God, for the wisdom belongs to common people, and not to the Pharisees and tyrant leaders. These “infants” see God’s grace, love and wisdom which the “wise” do not (or refused to) acknowledge. In verse 28, Jesus invites all heavily burdened and weary to rest. This is an invitation to the common people who suffer from heavy labor, and unjust practices of the law. It is not for the religious leaders in the book of Matthew which were complicit to the Roman rulers in maintaining the imperial system. People suffer from maintaining a system that doesn’t serve them. This invitation of rest is a life under God’s reign that the people is bringing into being.

July 3rd – the tragic day when the Anti-Terror Bill became a law. President Duterte signed this dangerous bill at the time when the Philippines set the highest single day increase in the new cases for Covid-19. The bill is terror itself to the people which gives absolute power to the executive branch to judge who the terrorist is and who is not, based from its vague and overbroad definition of terrorism. Anyone who is critical of the government can be tagged as a terrorist. Anyone who is airing their legitimate demands can be accused of doing acts of terrorism. This law does not only undermine our long history of stuggle for democracy, but also tramples upon our human rights and dignity as a people. President Duterte’s signing of this controversial bill only shows that he does not respect the wisdom of the common people. Guilty of so many transgression against the people, he weaponizes the law to curtail the exercise of people’s rights to demand transparency, social justice and the delivery of services to the people . He would never understand the danger of it because he never listens to the cries of his kababayans.

All of his CoVid-19 pandemic responses are miscued. To begin with there were no clear overall plan to manage the pandemic. The national government was just letting the LGU’s work with their own strategies. The militaristic display of power by arresting the common folk on “violation protocols” and doing humanitarian work, while having a boastful display of military tanks and high-powered guns in our streets will not kill the virus. This militarist approach does not solve our health crisis, but even more creates terror to our communities. We can imagine the several layers of suffering to the Filipino people yet the policies and military equipment cannot comprehend it. They will just identify the hungry people as “pasaway” with the authority’s insensitive comments like, “disiplina lang ‘yan”. With these mentally, emotionally draining scenarios for almost four months now, what does rest mean for the most of us?

Besides needed rest for us to function like sleep and food, to REST is also about raising our awareness, and crying out. Rest is also about releasing the heavy burden of yoke of slavery from unjust laws and practices. Rest is learning to set boundaries and saying “no” to any form of exploitation. For us today, rest is also about resistance. For jeepney drivers, rest would mean driving back to the streets, and gaining back their hanapbuhay. For OFWs, it could mean going home to their families and where employment is guaranteed. Rest for parents and students could mean freezing the school year and serve the mass-oriented, scientific and nationalist education. For our frontliners, it means sufficient amount of PPE’s and raising their salaries ample support from the government. Rest for all of us could be free mass testing and junking the Terror Law. Rest is not a luxurious self-care like how capitalism is capturing it. It is sensitive to the human need. It is not just an aid for a dysfunctional society. It is awareness and embodiment of our rights and God-given life.

The yoke Jesus offers is easy and light. It is not a life that is magically at ease. It is not an escape but engagement. It is full of struggle and challenges, not because of injustices but because we are working for freedom and justice. The yoke is a humble service instead of proving oneself and unending competition. The yoke is security in God and people’s love instead of illusionary power and wealth. The yoke is healing and intentional change instead of repeating the tyranny of the past. Practicing rest may be hard at first especially when exploitation conditions us to be busy. Practicing rest is engaging in the process of change. Change is engagement; it is not what politicians promise to us. Change is intentional and cultural consciousness. It is the work of everybody. Change is the creation of society that realizes the life which God had have given to us-the fullness of life. Rest gives us that energy that drives us for change, and changing the system, revolutionizes everything. To put rest to the perspective of the masang-api, and for the whole lot of us who are suffering, rest is about resistance.

May God give us the rest that we need, so that we may be able to push and assert for life for all, and to #JUNKTERRORLAW.