Moments
Wide open
By Fr. Jerry Orbos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:34:00 10/12/2008
Filed Under: Religion & Belief, Churches (organisations)
ACCORDING to a text message I received, there are three kinds of wives: The pessimist who thinks her husband will never change; the optimist who hopes her husband will change in the future; and the realist who simply changes her husband!
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In today’s Gospel (Mt. 22, 1-14) we see in the Parable of the Wedding Feast that God is the optimist who invites and continues to invite His people to the feast. However, He is also a realist who has the freedom and sovereignty to change His decisions and plans. In other words, He can neither be controlled nor dictated to by anything in us, nor by any one of us. Generosity is His prerogative, not His obligation. Abuse can only come from our side, not from His side.
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God’s goodness and generosity cannot be limited according to our own standards. Nor can He be confined to a particular race, people, culture or religion. For those who still think that they are special and “above the rest” when it comes to God, hello! We are all the same in God’s eyes. We are all special in God’s heart.
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Beware of self-righteousness in any form. The best way to approach God is to approach Him in humility. The truth is, all of us need God’s mercy. A proud person approaches God knowingly or unknowingly through the road of merits or achievements. A more realistic way is to approach Him on the road of mercy.
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Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday. This observance is meant to remind us that God is in them, in their cultures and values. In fact, indigenous peoples are more Christian than many so-called Christians. We can learn a lot, as in “a lot,” from them, especially “respect, understanding, compassion and love.”
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In the Philippines, we have Divine Word Missionaries (SVDs) working with indigenous peoples in Abra, Cagayan, Mountain Province, Pampanga, Mindoro, Mindanao and Palawan. As seminarians, we spent many summers with them. One of the things I learned from the Mangyans of Mindoro is their being “receivers,” not “getters.” They don’t grab or get something that is being given to them. They just open their hands and receive gratefully. Our government leaders and officials could surely learn a lot from them.
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We take note too of the deep respect and responsible care our indigenous peoples show for mother nature. They don’t hunt more than they can eat; neither do they get from the earth more than what they need. Shame on us who see the world with eyes so full of greed. Double the shame on the moneyed and the powerful who capitalize on little people’s needs.
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The kingdom of heaven featured as a wedding feast or as a banquet is a story we have to tell and tell again and again if only to give joy and hope to our people who are burdened by earthly cares and problems. It’s a happy story. Too often, we tell and replay the sad story. We should tell our people more stories that talk of surprises and possibilities; stories that are forward-looking and help them to move on. After all, isn’t our Gospel all about the good news?
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Speaking of good stories, we thank God for the Galoc Oil Field in Palawan from which 20,000 barrels of oil a day can be pumped now. This would cover 6 percent of daily oil demand in our country. Yes, God is a generous God. Our country is a blessed country. Our people are hard working and good. I wish the same of the above could be said of our leaders. Let us continue to plead to God to relieve us of our sufferings, which are brought about by our poverty of good leaders in our land.
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This Saturday and every Saturday thereafter, we will be on dzMM (630 AM band and Teleradyo) from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with our program “Light Moments” to reflect on the Sunday (next day’s) Gospel, together with a guest. Our guest this Saturday is Sonia Roco. Prior to her, we had a fisherman, a Protestant pastor, a priest, an actress, etc. Yes, none of us has a monopoly of God, but each one of us has a feature of the face of God.
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We will be in the Divine Word College of Bangued, Abra this coming Oct. 19 for a 9 a.m.-12 nn Mission Talk and Recollection. Happy to go back to my first parish assignment as a young missionary in 1983. Happy too, on this our Philippine SVD Centennial year, to go back where it all began with the arrival of our first two missionaries Father Beckert and Father Scheirmann, in 1909. The work goes on, the work of inviting people to go to the wedding feast goes on. Remember, you are invited. And please, pass on the invitation to others too!
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Remember what the dentist tells you when you go to him for treatment? “Open, open wide!” Let us pray that we become more open-minded and wide-hearted as we grow. Amen.
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Our CD “Oh, Some Moments #2,” a second collection of stories, jokes, reflections and anecdotes, is now available at Christ the King Seminary Store, E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City. It will soon be available at all SM record bars. Consider it for your Christmas gift and help Filipino SVD missionaries abroad.
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A moment with the Lord:
Lord, help me to become like you; to become open-minded and a wide-hearted person. Amen.
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