Our generation is blessed with the independence that our forefathers fought for with their lives. What we now enjoy is the fruit of the blood and lives that were offered at the altar of our freedom and democracy. After centuries of slavery under abusive colonial masters, our brave countrymen fought long battles that won us back our lost freedom. Armed with inferior weapons, our heroes fought with courage against the artillery of our foreign oppressors. They could have opted the convenient road to self-preservation and lived longer under the rule of their foreign masters. But our forebears decided to fight a justified war that will win freedom for the future generations to enjoy. Ours future generation that now reaps the benefits of their hard won battles.
As we mark this 125th commemoration of that momentous victory for our freedom and independence, it is but apt to look back at the heroic act our heroes took. Their unselfish concern for our generation led to the attainment of our independence from our oppressors. We were able to establish our own government and fly our flag independently. Our colonizers placed us under an authoritarian regime that considered us no more than slaves under the Spanish crown. After the Spanish rule, we still have to be ruled by American and Japanese invaders before we obtained liberation by a victory in a war whose credit was grabbed by the Americans, obliterating as it did, the win of our Filipino soldiers.
From one perspective, we could take the sacrifice of our forefathers as their decisive move to free us from the burden of oppression and slavery. They risked their lives fighting a battle against well armed foreign invaders, so that we could enjoy a life of freedom and liberty. Our independence was won in the battles a quarter more than a century ago. We have turned undeserving of that supreme sacrifice but we got our share of the freedom and liberty we inherited no matter what.
Our country may have been granted independence during that historical rites more than a century ago but we seem to have lost its essence over the years. After that raising of our country’s flag as a sign of our independence during that historic event on June 12, 1898, it looks like we have bungled the great benefits of that feat. Our political and economic landscape had been bastardized by foreign intervention. We have been held captive by our foreign creditors to the point that we no longer have the right to set the course of our destiny. We owe so much and we have to pay at all costs even if it means trampling upon our constitution and our sovereignty.
The sovereignty and independence that our forefathers won had been trampled upon by Chinese officials who kept intruding our national territory despite our victory in the United Nations arbitral tribunal. The situation got worse when ex-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte downplayed the arbitral award and welcomed China to continue its intrusion into our national territory. The situation had not been rectified under the new administration that is too cautious in dealing with China. And yet, we are being made to believe that we are . . . free?
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The Beatitudes make sense
WE are familiar with the Beatitudes. (cfr. Mt 5,1-12) At first glance, they appear to us as a crazy formulation of what would make us blessed. How can you be blessed if you are poor in spirit, if you mourn, if you are meek, insulted and persecuted, etc.?
But they actually teach us that since we would always be weighed down by our limitations and weaknesses and endlessly hounded by all kinds of temptations and evil, we are assured that such conditions are golden opportunities for us to achieve what would consist as our true and ultimate joy, and our human fulfillment and perfection.
We have to be ready for these conditions and know not only how to deal with them but also how to derive something good from them. In these instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after we have done all things possible to solve our problems.
We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death on the cross.
Let’s always remember that God, in his ineffable ways, can also talk to us through these crosses. In fact, he can convey precious messages and lessons through them. It would be good that we have a theological attitude toward them, and be wary of our tendency to react to them in a purely human way, based only on our senses and feelings and on worldly trends.
In all our affairs and situations in life, we should always go to God to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if the outcome of our prayers and petitions appears unanswered, if not, contradicted. If our faith is strong and abiding, we know that God is always around and is most eager to help us in the best way.
This should be the attitude to have. It’s an attitude that can only indicate our unconditional faith and love for God who is always in control of things, and at the same time can also leave us in peace and joy even at the worst of the possibilities.
Remember the Book of Ecclesiastes where it says that for everything there is a season, “a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal…” But everything is under God’s control.
We have to follow the example of the many characters in the gospel who, feeling helpless in the many predicaments they were in, earnestly rushed to Christ for some succor. They went to him unafraid and unashamed and they got what they wanted. Even when we think we are undeserving of God’s care, we should just go to him.
It may happen that we may not get what we want. And in this, we should not be too surprised or too worried. What is sure is that God always listens and gives us what is best for us, even if what God gives us is not what we asked for.