I included myself voluntarily to the millions of Catholics who flocked the churches today to get our temples marked with ashes to both symbolically and hopefully genuinely turn our backs away from the old ways of a sinful life. It is somewhat a turning back away from the “dark side” and tread the new life of righteousness. Speaking for myself, this is the most difficult part of living I thought.
Today, we also celebrate and commemorate the historic and pivotal EDSA Revolution 1 that toppled the long rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. It was a collective reawakening of the patriotic blood of Filipinos to shun away the man living all his life and making this nation also live on the dark side of greed. What a coincidence for these two celebrations to fall on the same day. If Cardinal Sin is still alive, he has surely lots of words to share about today’s celebrations.
People Power Buried into Ashes
The latest SWS survey indicates that almost 11 million Filipinos are jobless and reading beyond the number, it will certainly mean more than 11 millions Filipinos are presently experiencing the pangs of poverty and hunger. And this number is being lashed out by the wards of GMA as inaccurate and baseless; that the government has the more accurate and official number about this sensitive issue. This is nothing more than Judases denying they betrayed their Lord for some 30 silver coins.
With his staggering number of Pinoys who are jobless and certainly living under the dark clouds of poverty, today’s celebration of the first day of Lent will seem to be nothing like a ritual where the congregations lining up for their own share of ashes are just but mere parochial spectators. The pastor once again echoed that today and the whole Lenten season all of us are to abstain from eating meat, and fast at least one meal every Friday, abstain from our usual indulgence, and give alms to the poor and of course pray. These admonitions are nothing but empty doctrines except for the last two. For how can the average Pinoy which is basically the foundation of the Philippine Catholic Church even abstain from eating meat and splurging into indulgent life and fast at least a meal every Friday if everyday is already a heavy cross of abstinence and fasting. Millions of Pinoys are living on the Calvary of hunger thus, the whole year is a Lenten season for the masses, while the select few Judases are splurging their lives living la vida loca on millions, even billions of stolen silver coins. Maybe, there is a need for the Church to change the teachings on abstinence and fasting. Maybe fasting and abstinence should only be preached to government officials and business executives lest they be excommunicated.
Many Pinoys are filling up the pews of Churches, mostly not for thanksgiving but for desperation in these trying times. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of the poverty of many of us, not solely of the soul but more basic is the poverty of the body. The Church cannot preach anymore to the aithful telling them to tame the body for the soul to be cleansed, for the bodies of each and every poor Filipino man, woman and child is nothing but a corpus automatically responding to its instinct due to poverty, hunger and illiteracy and not to some metaphysical belief systems even metanarratives. And while preaching the tenets of Gospel truths from the pulpit, a number of our bishops succumb to being under the jurisdictions of the Diocese of Malacañang. Stop the preaching therefore to empty stomachs and burry all the corrupt officials of the government and private sectors who are sucking up the very blood of this nation into the pit of ashes. King David was not cherished as the greatest king by Israel because of his power or his intelligent governance, but by his great example of humility and repentance to God for all his failings, stubbornness and greed. This Ash Wednesday is a literal reflection of the poverty of the Filipino people robbed of their basic dignity by some Pharisees and teacher of the law.
All of us are called to repentance but it is of greater insult to the spirit of charity and a greater sin for those who have more already in life to rob from the poor the very last centavo they have.
The spirit therefore of EDSA Revolution is one of the lampposts of the past that give light and hope to the present and even the future. The collective strength of people to rise up from the ashes of undignified life and nation is a manifestation that the Filipino people can still renew this nation falling into the brink of total moral decay.
However, GMA in almost 8 years in office has bastardized our sense of nation and put out this valiant light by implementing her holiday economics and boldly making this nation believe EDSA 1 is nothing but the past. Because of her holiday economics, our collective cultural consciousness of being rooted to a solid foundation of our identity as a nation through EDSA 1 and the many more triumphs of those who have courageously gone ahead of us are now nothing but days to cheer of and cool ourselves into the air-conditioned alleys of malls and fastfoods. The present generation has become impaired and lost their connectedness to this profound source of inspiration and binding force, and EDSA and many other monumental celebrations has been reborn as nothing but historical footnotes to some old, dusty and error-filled DepEd textbooks.
GMA boasted confidently that EDSA is a source of the democracy we enjoy today, an inspiration we offered the whole world; EDSA II was tolerated by the world and another EDSA would be condemned by the world. In short, she insulted our intelligence and sense of nationhood when she said that EDSA III is not anymore acceptable in a 21st century free world. With these insults, she did not give the proper respect to the spirit of EDSA and to the thousand faceless souls who stood up against the dictator for us to enjoy the freedom that we have today. She has certainly lost her mind and her sanity! She has lost her moral compass and indebtedness to the nation and EDSA. The world does not measure a revolution as acceptable or not solely on how many times it was mounted. The world always accepts peaceful revolutions when nations topple corrupt and illegitimate governments. She has totally forgotten that her present position is a result of power that is in EDSA.
The spirit of EDSA is now buried into the ashes of anonymity in the illegitimate presidency of GMA. She deliberately buried for she is afraid that what has put her to power will also take away from her the power she is enjoying; afraid of the day of reckoning. Ash Wednesday is therefore indeed a day of mourning of the Filipino nation with the endless litany of corruption and scandals that has hounded us (NBN-ZTE Deal, Macapagal Avenue Road Scam, Election Automation Scam, IMPSA Deal, Fertilizer Fund Scam, Bribery Scandal, Euro-Generals Scam, WB Road Project Scam, Jose Pidal Scam, and many more).
What we need is to go back to our rootedness as a nation; the sacrifices of unsung and faceless heroes who fought down to their last breath for the survival of our land against the tyranny of the powerful and corrupt some. With all the scandals and corruption our nation is presently chained with, this renewal of rediscovering the sacrifices of our heroes for this nation they loved so dear should become our new battle cry for personal and societal transformation come the day of reckoning. There is a genuine hope embedded inside the spirit of EDSA and many other triumphs of our nation against tyranny; that from ashes of our mourning and sacrifices, we will all rise and resurrect triumphantly as one upright Filipino nation.
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