As Filipino citizens, we have both the ability and responsibility to remind, denounce and help our leaders understand the adverse effects of injustice, oppression, marginalization and the causes of poverty and hunger and the act to eliminate them.
Why are there so many hungry? So many robbed of their right to housing? So many in need of the basic necessities of safe food, safe water, education and health services? What has become of leaders, so corrupt and overcome with greed?
ur country is stained with blood of innocent martyrs. Killings continue on a daily basis, with the perpetrators go unpunished. There is a time to mourn to honor the victims and there is a time to continue what the martyrs have started. And, as Jesus said to the little girl: “Talitha Koum!” (“Little girl, I say to you, GET UP!”), it is also time for us Christians and disciples of Christ to get up.
The story and history of our society is likened to a tree.
As a forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist was an activist during his time. He dared to defy the system and talk against the status quo. He challenged the authorities to straighten their crooked ways of doing things. He preached justice and social transformation. His daring stance landed him to prison which led to his tragic death. He was decapitated for speaking the truth.
The season of advent calls us to continue to participate in the establishment of God’s kingdom in the here and now of the Philippine society, to be firm in our resolve to live in righteousness by being vigilant, ever awake and responsible of our God given duties to nurture and protect his household – the Philippine society from the evil schemes of the fake “Lords.”
The Bible, through this parable, is teaching us to say NO to an unjust system that exploits our workers and laborers. We advocate for ‘living wages’ and necessary benefits for our laborers. We face the greedy masters and tell them, “enough is enough.”
There is always the love and compassion that summon me to respond to the Others without filling them fully or arriving finally to the end.
Again, paying taxes is not bad. It is every citizen’s duty. However when taxes are enforced to exploit and abuse the already over-burdened poor, taxes become an immoral tool of exploitation. The situation becomes abusive when taxes are used as a source of power play of the Cesars” – to command allegiance and support from the people.
How do we express our love for Him and keep His commandments? It is written everywhere in the Bible and still much relevant today. Love those who He loves: the poor, hungry, homeless, prisoners, persecuted, lonely, and hopeless. Have preferential option for the marginalized, disadvantaged, disenfranchised, isolated, and excluded.
The ownership of land is in the hands of the powerful people – the landed elites, the mighty corporations that exacted money out of the hard labor, sweat, and blood of the oppressed. They are the bureaucrats, the people in the governments who governed as if the fate of the people is in their hands to give or to put to an end.