MANY Filipinos worldwide posted pictures of Simbang Gabi Masses on social media such as Facebook. Their photos showed happiness, harmony and contentment. There were even pictures of parishioners attending Simbang Gabi Masses in flooded churches. That was quite remarkable, wasn’t it? It showed people’s religiosity and devotion to these nine days of Simbang Gabi Masses in preparation for Christmas day.
There were also priests like me who used Facebook to post our Simbang Gabi homilies. Our purpose was to draw attention not to ourselves but to Christ, our Savior. It was to spread His Good News and the many ways we interpreted the Gospel Readings. And we hope that they trended and made people talk and reflect on the messages. We hope that they have transformed people’s lives and parish communities.
For example, one of the Gospels that I spoke was about a people who were intrigued by the giving birth of Elizabeth in her old age. They were the neighbors and relatives of Elizabeth and Zachariah. It was a scene of people coming to the house of the elderly couple to share in the joy of their long-awaited son and to talk about their astonishment on how God had shown mercy to this couple.
But I asked, “Were these neighbors and relatives really intrigued and astonished by the birth of this elderly couple’s son? Or were they just nosy and pakialamera (people who like to meddle in other people’s lives)?
In the Gospel, the neighbors and relatives were suggesting names for the child at the time of his circumcision. “Call him Zechariah after his father,” some of them said. Others mentioned some more possible names. Elizabeth, the mother, insisted that the child should be named John, which means God is gracious. Then the neighbors commented that there is no one among their relatives who has this name. They made signs, asking Zechariah, the father, what he wished the child to be called. Finally, Zechariah was able to speak after being mute for months. He wrote on a tablet, “John is name.”
The Gospel went on saying how the neighbors went around spreading this news. “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him,” they shared to the whole village and the neighboring villages.
Hopefully, I reflected, they were not just really nosy neighbors. Hopefully, they were touched by this event in their lives and saw the hand of God in the birth of this child. Hopefully, they were indeed filled with faith and shared the Good News of God’s visit to his people.
Today, when we talk about Good News in parishes, society, and even in politics, we should talk about the good things happening among us. The sad thing is instead spreading good news, we share gossip and criticisms of other people. The sad news is that we often hear people who pull each other down, what we, Filipinos, call “crab mentality” instead of pushing people up, affirming them for their achievements and the good things they do for God, country, and other people. We hear demeaning and damaging words of people’s reputations. The sad news is that we don’t often control our tongues or our emotions to the extent of hurting one another. And the worst thing is that we condone or give excuses to the “pagmumura” (curses) of some people.
We often say that “sana araw-araw pasko” (we hope that everyday is Christmas) as a sign of our longing for joy, harmony, peace and generosity in our lives. We can have this if only we become conscious of what it is to live an authentic Christian life. It is to be like Mary—pure in intentions, truly concerned about the well being of others, disciplined and reverend in speech, and always seeing the goodness of other people.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
