Sagutin mo na kasi

September 20th, 2007

[Warning: Hindi ito ung ordinaryong ako. Patnubay ay kailangan. (Kanino?) Grammar checked by the editor-in-chief of AWAG, the official publication of ANSMS]

There is a distinction of believing from knowing. For knowing is holding information in the mind indicating private knowledge while believing is hoping in its broadest sense which necessarily demands actions. One may come to know that Jesus was such an extraordinary man but unless one lives out the teaching of Christ, he is no believer of Christ. Believing Christ means no other than living like Christ otherwise learning Christ’s way is only knowing.

To live is Christ. (Phil. 1:21) Simple yet difficult. A thought provoking. This I think is the very challenge of Christ to every Christian; to imitate him in deeds and in words. The question is how can we live Christ? “To live is Christ” is to live his mission. Of course we should not forget that Christ died for our sins but we often forget why Christ was killed. In the Gospel of Luke 4:16-21, through the prophet Isaiah, we can know the mission of Christ. It was stated here that Christ came to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. We can see here that the theme of Christ’s mission is LIBERATION. This must be the concern of every Christian, to liberate his/her brothers or sisters from any kind of oppression and not a contributor to the oppression of the people especially the poor. If we have noticed, Christ has a special favor to the poor because He identifies himself with the poor and he became poor. He was born in a manger and lived in a small town of Nazareth. A saint once said, “If I give bread to the poor they call me saint, but if I ask why the poor remain poor they say I am a communist.” Our concern with the poor must not always be giving them food or attends to any of their bodily needs. We should also be concern in helping them stand on their own and live with dignity and integrity. To do this is to face conflict. Here comes a difficulty in following Christ - conflict. We cannot please everybody and most people cannot understand the mission of Christ. We should be ready and firm that the liberating mission of Christ demands conflict. As Fr. Albert Rabe would say, “you must be comfortable with conflict, expect conflict as essential part of the liberating mission of the Kingdom.” If we continue to read the Gospel of Luke 4: 21ff., we can see that Jesus Christ was rejected and the very sad thing here is that he was rejected by his own people, by his own town. If we are very serious with the mission of Christ, many people will not like us.

The mission of Christ is precisely the mission of the Church. The mission of Christ is an integral liberation of the human being. Christ did not stop in the spiritual salvation but he dealt also with the improvement of the quality of life, he spoke against the rotten political systems and oppressive mindsets. Christ then came for the salvation of the total human being that is why we cannot say that the main concern of the Church is spiritual. The Church is concerned in every aspect of the human life. The Church as the body of Christ, we are its members and as members of this body of Christ we must act in accordance with that mission.

The culture of silence is the prevalent culture of our time. It is a negative silence and this kind of silence must not be tolerated. There is also the culture of minimalism and the culture of lies. This kind of cultures helps bring about the oppressive way of our society. Christ is never silent when he sees erratic acts. We must do the same. We should fight against any form of injustices. We must be the voice of the mute. It must also be clear to us that “to fight” does not mean a bloody fight. It is not armed struggle and it is active non-violence. Christ did not teach us any form of violence. He taught us to fight the evil not the person. This is also another challenge in the liberating mission of Christ, that is, we must attack the issue not the person. Living the mission of Christ requires determination and strength. All of these graces come from the same Christ who sends us for the mission. And just as Christ draw strength through prayer, we also pray to be able to do Christ’s liberating mission.

So, are you being fed up by the oppressive system of our society? Be a liberator, be like Christ. TO LIVE IS CHRIST! Isn’t simple? Of course, but not easy!