June 2001

Tithing

Piso na lang, mas mayaman naman sa akin ang mga pari…In English, “one dollar should be enough, priests are richer than me anyway”.

Sound familiar? Probably. We hear this a lot from our fellow Filipino Catholics, both here and back home. But let’s not throw stones at anybody. Let’s just look at the logic, or lack of logic, in that. First, would you give a dollar tip to a waiter in your favorite restaurant? Or how about the cab or car service driver that took you to the airport? If you do, are you aware of what a waiter might do to your food when you next come back? Or would the cab driver help you with your bag next time? You know, word goes around.

This is not to say that the priest might give you “half” the usual blessing, nor refuse to give you absolution, nor withhold anything else that can be withheld. It only means that a dollar a week to our parish church wouldn’t go a long way. In fact, it wouldn’t go anywhere at all anymore, what with the rising costs of just the physical maintenance of a church these days. Then there are other services you’d expect from a parish church that can be severely hampered by lack of funds. And unlike the Philippines where by sheer number of parishioners alone, a peso from each family may make a difference, here it is sadly not so. In America, the financial health, and thus existence, of any church depends mostly on the support of its parishioners. A dollar a week per family will definitely not cut it, even if there were a thousand people who come to church on a Sunday (about $300 in collection, from an average of 3 people per family).

But let’s not get too bogged down with the material ramifications of this. Let’s look into our soul and find the real reason for giving to the Church. Isn’t it an act of giving back to God something we value? It is actually a sacrifice. It is something we want to give back to Him as a token of our appreciation for all the things we received from Him. It has nothing to do with whether the church or the priest is affluent or poor, or to whether other people are giving or not giving, too. It doesn’t matter where the funds are being used or even misused (God forbid!). That’s not our concern anymore. When it leaves our hands, that belongs to God now. Whoever uses it will answer to Him. But for us, we will be rewarded according to the amount of love that went with that offering. Not the amount of money in it. “Escape clause”, you say. In a way, it is. But how much love can you put in a dollar these days? Unless one goes to Mass everyday and gives a dollar each time, maybe.

If one is truly strapped for cash, one could go the way of “time tithing”. Simply put, contribute your time. This fast-paced material world puts monetary value on your time anyway. Participate in the Lay or Eucharistic Ministries, in church-sponsored activities or programs, church-organized Bible studies and prayer meetings. There is plenty to do in your parish church.

There is one underlying theme in all this: the more you give, the more you receive. God cannot be outdone in generosity. And He who sees in secret, rewards in secret. But the glimmer in your eyes will give you away.

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Friday in Lent… No meat! Okay then, let’s do sushi, or maybe teriyaki salmon. What about lobster? Or if you’re feeling Filipino, we can do “sugpo” or “sinigang na bangus” at a Filipino restaurant in Jersey City. How about vegemeat, or vegetarian hamburger, that’s not meat, right? Or tsitsaron, or just the sabaw of the nilaga…

Stop! — What’s the point in all this? This is that one time when simply obeying the letter of the law will make little spiritual sense. Abstinence from meat is a religious practice designed to make a person experience deprivation. This is because meat was once considered better tasting than fish, and so represents the good (in the sense, “luxurious”) life. This intentional deprivation is supposed to be an atonement for our moral misdeeds. It is also supposed to make us learn to deny ourselves, so to be stronger in the face of temptations. At the same time, we could be more understanding of the plight of those who are truly deprived.

This seafood-delight Friday practice is a classic case of a “work-around”. Something we hear a lot about in the technical world— like when a fuse is blown, we hook up the connection directly with an aluminum foil. Or we have 4 electrical appliances but only one outlet, so we make an octopus connection. It works, but it’s dangerous.

Doing fish on Lenten Friday this way is okay, but it may not do us that much good. It’s the basic minimum. Just enough to get us inside the door, like merely purchasing a ticket at the box office. It’s not enough. One should actually make the effort to walk into the theater and find a seat in order to enjoy the movie. Even better if one can go for some popcorn and drinks, too. The more extra effort is added into the equation, the better the enjoyment.

So here’s what we could try to do. Let’s continue doing the prescribed fasting and abstinence, and then some. Let’s deprive ourselves of one or two things that may give us pleasure, but could be harmful to others. One would be tismis—yes, those seemingly harmless comments about our neighbor. Or driving like crazy, and screaming or cursing at other drivers. Or giving up some dish that we particularly relish, even if it is fish or seafood.

Now for the goodies (the popcorn of our spiritual movie-watching). Let’s actually do something good towards others. We don’t even have to search and look hard for what to do in this regard. Let’s just be open, and many opportunities will present themselves each day. These don’t even have to be earth-shaking saving-the-fate-of-mankind actions, but little things like nodding a greeting to people, a smile to an elderly, giving up a seat to a pregnant woman, praying for people, for vocations, and the like.

Then we can sit back and enjoy our “movie”. And God who sees in secret certainly rewards in secret... But the secret will be out, for you may not be able to get rid of that smile on your face.

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February 2001

TWO STEPS FORWARD,
ONE STEP BACK

No, not a dance. Just the way things should be in our spiritual life. Our own human nature drags us back. From our very first moment on earth we already started off with a great big fall. It had to take our tortured Lord to take a fall to get us up and to even earn for us an entry in that running.

Sometimes, we can get discouraged that we don't seem to be progressing or getting any better spiritually. No matter how much we try, we seem to be always falling back into sin. Especially if our sin, or "weakness", has become some sort of a habit. Well, know what, that's the clever Devil talking there. His message: "You see, there's really no point in trying."

If all the Saints thought that way, while they were on earth, do you think there'd be souls in heaven at all. Even St. Paul once lamented that he had this "thorn" on his side which he had asked God to remove so many times. (But that God replied with the classic: "My grace is sufficient for you"). In other words, St. Paul himself was always on the brink of stepping back, and might have actually stepped back on occasion. (It could just be a temptation to anger, pride, or fear of death; we don't really know, nor need to know).But then he would take many more steps forward and grow in sanctity, that by the time he was martyred he would presumably have overcome it. Actually, even if he hadn't fully mastered his human frailties, his martyrdom would have made all that completely irrelevant. His supreme sacrifice took him straight to heaven.

This is normal. The only two human beings who would never take that one step back would be Our Lord Jesus Christ and His own Mother Mary. All others, will have to go through this simple fandango-2 steps forward, 1 step back. Everyone who makes more steps forward than back progressively moves on, and is a winner. Special honors go to those who can garner a lot more steps forward before tripping back. They're called Saints.

This sounds all too technical, spiritually. Let's go practical then. If you are a New York driver and get riled and curse at every driver that cuts closely in front of you, you're bound to do that dozens of times in a day. What say, if you hold off on cursing just 3 of those people before you let loose, you would have decreased the number of times you curse by a lot. After a while try 4 or 5. Before long, you wouldn't be cursing anybody at all anymore. Good for your soul, good for your heart. We can use the same approach for ridding ourselves of other bad habits.

Then there's confession. The Lord knows we'll need it for those times when we back-slide. So He "organized" it when He charged Peter with the pronouncement: "Whatever you forgive on earth, will be forgiven in heaven". Make use of this gift, even for those little infractions. Confession is a Sacrament that has ability to catapult you far forward in your track. In fact, way beyond where you left off when you last fell.

It is not bad to get discouraged about our spiritual progress. This is a good sign. We want to move closer to God and we recognize what's holding us back. Lay that fear on God's feet. Be nice and be forgiving to yourself, because you're trying your best. He knows that. And you'll get an "A" for effort, even if your work is less than perfect.

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January, 2001

MMI

Okay, now…The lights have been taken down and put away, the parol re-wrapped in the original cellophane and karton that came with it from the Philippines, the drying Christmas tree tied up or bundled and, with many a loud aray! from pine needles, dragged away to the curbside pick-up. The Christmas cards are filed in a box for next year’s round of “return” greetings, and the Belen figurines and stable put in the drawers of the curio cabinet. The season is definitely over, what next?

Oh, yeah, it’s the New Year. Now this one is, without doubt, the new millennium. Last year many still believed that 2000 didn’t actually belong to this millennium yet. But those voices of dissent will finally be quiet from now on. And here is the Roman numeral representation of this year—MMI (rather looks funny after all those centuries of multiple-letter years, like MXMLXXXVIII for 1988, or worse, MDCCCLXXXVIII for 1888). Last year, I missed a chance to relate the year MM (2000) to Our Lady to mean Mother Mary’s year. But this year MMI will even be better because Our Lady will be bringing Jesus with her, as Maria Mater Iesus (you can of course figure out that Latin phrase, right?)

One thing that struck me in my associations with non-Christians during this time of year, is that they seem to be just relieved that the “nuisance” of the holidays is finally over and done with. No more traffic jams in the city streets, no more crowds in the mall, no more holiday gifts to be bought, no more tips to letter-carriers and garbage collectors, and to people that worked for or served them during the year. No more reason to fake being cheery.

The reason is, of course, that celebrating Christmas without Christ is a rather empty exercise. The message of Christ is that of giving. It is by giving that we experience a little of the real kind of joy that Jesus won for us when He came, and to which joy He would like to take us for all eternity.  And who among us could dispute that pure happiness that warms our heart to the core when our little child showers us with kisses in gratitude for the present she just opened on Christmas Day?