Scene and sin

There was a fascinating scene this day when we attended the 27^th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution at the Edsa Monumento, Quezon Avenue. We, the Claretians participated on it for the celebration of faith that united the Filipino people 27 years ago… and still believing that they are.

And I wanted to capture great moments thru an old Canon digital camera I brought with me.

There are just a lot of stories behind the lens: the figure of Mother Mary as the lady of faith during the bloodless Revolution; the different religious sects being united; the Philippine President Noynoy Aquino signing The Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013; the hundreds of army and policemen standing steady under the heat of the sun; the figures of running officials and celebrities. And the list goes on and on.

Of all the clicks and shots, there’s only one that stands out among the pictures I captured: a group of photojournalists clicking for a story.

I couldn’t explain what I felt when I saw these media men gathered together and held their respective cameras; positioned to their place and shot for a myriad angles on the subjects they projected. I remember back in school, I learned that if you really want to have a good angle, you must know how to wait. As the trite adage goes, “patience is a virtue.”

Here and there, they waited. And when the moment comes, they come like a big, huge wave to shower the flashes from their cameras directly towards the subject. I saw them very determined. So focused and steady. They can’t just be bothered by anything else… never! You’ll see their heads guarding the subject – waiting for something that’ll turn into a FrontPage issue for the next day.

And so I immediately took the chance of taking a picture of these photojournalists without knowing why. I even heard one man near me commenting, “Why is he taking picture to those mediamen?”

The celebration lasted for almost five hours. And in a reflective mood, I kept on examining that scene. Why a sudden strange attraction on that image? Then the “scene” gave me a “sin.”

Are we like those photojournalists? That once we recognize our sins, we immediately turn our cameras on and ask god for forgiveness? Oh how I see the real me here.

In today’s Reading (Dn 9:4b-10), it’s amazing how the prophet Daniel prayed passionately to God saying all the infidelities he committed and of the people of Judah. He was so narrative in crying for help. And take note how many times the word “sin” is mentioned on this text (twice actually). And take another one from today’s Psalm: Lord, don’t deal with us according to our sins. (Ps 79:8)”

Is the message once again tells us how to plead for help? The Gospel this day (Lk 6:36-38) is very clear to this: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Excuse me God, are You saying like, “Forgive your own sins”? Do You mean I just have to forgive myself from all the sins I committed, no matter how big or small are they?

And God told me to check the pictures I’ve got from the camera. And as I scrolled those images, they are perfectly beautiful for me! I couldn’t believe how unsatisfied I was when taking a shot this morning believing those angles don’t look good but actually they are!

And those photojournalists? I want to believe we discovered the same: we have been doing enough… it’s just that we don’t think it’s good enough already.

Why keep focusing the sins we committed than focusing how good is the Lord? Why don’t we forgive ourselves from being sinful when God Himself has already forgiven us?

An image that taunts me

“Be merciful, just as your Fatehr is merciful…”

Targeting

(reflection on  Mt 7:7–12)

One reason why we must always attentively listen to the daily Gospel is because it contains words worth-remembering. And aside from that, the Gospel is a message that is responding to our individual human conditions.

No doubt, today’s Gospel (Mt 7:7–12) is one of my favorite Gospel texts. And often we use this Gospel of Matthew as our reference whenever we encounter daily personal struggles – be it in our studies and office works, spiritual growth; we use this Gospel text as reference whenever we do our ministries, and of course, for the Religious, during apostolate – when we find this text suitable to the conditions of the people in the area.

I remember watching a classic cartoon Peanuts where one of its episodes, Charlie Brown used to practice archery. He would shoot a couple of arrows in his backyard and afterwards would walk over and draw a target around wherever the arrows struck. And Lucy would notice him and ask, “Charlie, why are you doing that?” and Charlie would reply (without an embarrassment), “Well… by this I never miss.”

We can easily spot Charlie’s problem there: there’s a little planning or strategies behind his efforts – and that is, not selecting a specific target.

When I was in college doing my Journalism, I got to know these media practitioners and professors who decided to put up a local radio station in Legazpi. One of their priorities was to select a target audience. And they did three things instantly: first, they select their broadcast area; two, they figured out the segments of population wherein they are not being reached by other networks; three, they used formats to be used for the selected audience. And true enough, DZGB became one of the successful radio stations in Legazpi (until now!).

I don’t know if you have heard about people talking about the Gospel of Mark and Matthew. They said that almost all the teachings found in the Gosple of Mark are covered also by Matthew. And if this is the case, they would say, there’s no need to read both books.

But actually NO. If we are going to see their targets, we will see the difference…

Matthew’s Gospel was targeted for the Hebrew readers while Mark’s Gospel was targeted for the Gentile readers. You see, they may have the same meanings but they wrote for different audiences. And so, the style they used for communicating is different.

Of these stories, I am only left with one question. And Fr. Paulson, in his commentaries of our Claretian Daily Gospel says it right today: Are we really discerning what is truly good for us? It’s worth-pondering, you see? Are we really praying for what is truly good for us, for the church, and her people?  If we don’t know the answers for these questions, then maybe, we are not yet ready to pursue this kind of life (my audience: seminarians). If we don’t know the answers for these questions, maybe we don’t know ourselves yet. If we don’t know the answers for these questions, maybe we don’t know who really God is – or worst, we really don’t know how to love God. But, if we do know the answers for these questions, then perhaps, we are on the right track! Perhaps, we know that we are doing God’s will.

And we are all familiar with this: Doing God’s will entails effort. It requires faith. And faith here means believing that God is real and He is good. That faith is not a belief that God will do what we want. Faith is a belief that God will do what is right for us.

The word “help” occurs several times in today’s readings: The Psalm says, Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me. And in our First Reading (from the book of Esther), the Queen pleaded to the Lord saying, “My Lord, you who stand alone, come to my help; I am alone and have no help but you…” and if we are going to read her entire prayer there, she repeated the word “help” thrice more.

Healing begins when we do something. Healing begins when we reach out. Healing starts when we take step.

My prayer for all of us is that we will always do something that demonstrates faith. For faith without effort is no faith at all. We wish not to be Charlie Brown, who draws a bull’s-eye around whatever, wherever, or whoever he met and then settled for it.

God will always respond to our prayers. He has never rejected a genuine gesture of faith. Never.