We Believe in Life

NOVEMBER 1 and November 2 for us Filipinos are special days. Everything stops. There is no work and no school. But people travel to cemeteries, which bustle with life. Once in a year our beloved dead pull us from our busy lives to remember them and to be united because of them. Is it really death that brings us together?

What do we bring to the cemeteries? We bring fresh flowers, not plastic ones. We light candles. We bring food. Fresh flower, lighted candles, food – all of these are symbols of life. Hence, we bring life to the cemeteries. It is not death that makes our life stop on November 1 and November 2. It is our Christian belief that there is life beyond death. So, we refuse to forget our dead. They are still part of our life. We believe that death does not separate us from our beloved. We are still related to them.

However, our relationship now is beyond the physical and the material. They are in our memories, and most especially in our prayers. So, we do not go to the cemeteries just to eat and see each other, not even just to remember the dead. We go there to pray for them. This is our contact with them – our prayers. We pray for them and we ask their help through our prayers. In fact, the lighting of the candle and the putting of fresh flowers are done reverently. They signify our prayers.

Our celebrations of All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2 are deeply rooted in our Christian faith. In our Creed we proclaim: I believe in the Communion of Saints; I believe in the resurrection of the dead. The saints are those who live in the grace of God. The Church is made up of three ‘levels of saints’. The saints who are in heaven belong to the Church Triumphant. They are already victorious, sharing the glory of the angels. We praise the Lord for them and we hope that we and our beloved dead would be among someday. There are already many – billions of them - who have reached their goal in heaven and we thank and praise the Lord for them on November 1.

The saints who have died but are not yet fully holy are being purified in purgatory. They belong to the Suffering Church and are in the state of cleansing. We help them with our prayers on November 2. One day they too will join the Triumphant Church. Those in purgatory, having the saving grace of God in them, will be fully with God after their period of purification. If we are in the state of God’ grace, we saints on earth belong to the Militant Church. We are still struggling against evil. We ask the help of those who have already made it in the other life, both those in heaven and those in purgatory.

How wonderful it is that we belong to this great communion that stretch for thousands of years! We are really in good company.

Those who do not belong to this communion are those who have rejected God and his love. Those who definitively rejected him are those in hell. Those on earth who live in grave sin also reject him but hopefully they can still accept him in this life. We work and pray for this.

Unfortunately, due to commercialism and pagan influences, the celebration of life and holiness is being turned into time of fear, horror and death. This is the Halloween culture that many are unwittingly embracing, as if it is funny and cool. Is it not more cool and lovely to think of life, light, holiness and goodness? Let us reject this culture of death, and instead turn back to the real meaning of these days because we believe in life! The life beyond this one is love and holiness. In fact for a believer death is a door that leads to God.

  

Massacre of Farmers

Wherever there is massive poverty there is injustice. People are made poor! Their rights are stepped upon and they are even oppressed! This reality has again come to the fore with the massacre of the farmers in Hacienda Nene, Purok Fire Tree, Barangay Bulanon in Sagay City of Negros Occidental last October 20. Nine farmers, three of whom were women and two minors, were gunned down in their makeshift camp after they had taken their dinner around 9:30 pm by unknown assailants. After this brutal killing gasoline was poured over their bodies and they were set on fire.

Massacre of farmers is not new. We still remember the Escalante massacre in 1985, the Hacienda Luisita Massacre in 2002, and the KidapawanMassacre in 2016. Under Duterte’s watch in the last two years, 45 farmers have already been killed in Negros.

The reason for all these killings? Land! The farmers are denied their right to the land. Our Constitution of 1987 clearly stipulates that land reform is to be implemented to bring about social justice in the countryside. This mandate has been haphazardly executed because of the vested interests of our politicians who mostly come from the landed elite. Instead, the farmers who fight for their right to the land are tagged as “rebels” by the authorities. Hence many of them are mercilessly abused and even killed. The Sagay massacred is the most recent incident.

Many farmers’ groups resort to “Bungkalan” because the implementation of the constitutional mandate of Land Reform is very lame and slow. Not a few blame the farmers for forcible entry, but how many would blame the government and the landowners for non-implementation of the Basic Law of the land? But even if the bungkalan is “illegal,” would this be enough reason to kill them mercilessly?

Some officials in the government is “softening” this brutality by tagging the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) to which the farmers belong as leftist. Do they mean that “leftists” are fair game, that they can just be killed?

The government seems not to be able to put their acts together. While some officials claim that the NFSW is leftist, other officials in the same administration, without any evidence at all, already tag the NPA as the perpetrators. This is already a sign that the killers will not be brought in. Can they bring in the NPA?

 Now some, to ride on the anger of the public, assert that the “full wrath of the law” be fall on the killers? Are they really serious, or is this just plain bravado? Will the perpetrators, and more so, the brains, be ever brought to justice? Has the government the political will and the capability to bring justice for the farmers? Basing on the records of the Escalante massacre, the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Kidapawan massacre, and the so many killings of farmer leaders, I strong doubt. None of the masterminds of these dastardly deeds have been brought to justice. The strong suspicion is that those involved are among the land owners, the military and/or the politicians.

But justice to the farmers is not just to get the killers of the Sagay massacre. It is to address the root of these killing. Give land to the farmers! Implement the constitutional mandate of land reform! Nothing short of this will bring peace in our troubled countryside.

Has this administration the political will to do this? Will it be a better government than the previous ones, or will it be of the same kind – elitist, corrupt and against the people?

Hoping that voters will be wiser than the politicians

THE filing of candidacy for the 2019 national election is over. Now we know who are running, from the senatorial down to the municipal positions. It is, however, with great dismay when we see who are aspiring for political elective positions. We see old faces, the traditional TRAPO politicians. I cannot believe it! How thick faced our politicians can be! Even those with very strong criminal cases filed against them run. Even those who are too old to speak straight run! Even those who are discredited for being too subservient as to throw their principles away run! Do these persons really have the good of people at heart? I strongly doubt!

So the question is: why do they dare to run? Is the lure of the profitability of being in public office so great that they are already blinded? Is there a hidden arrangement somewhere, with the COMELEC perhaps, that no matter their state of health or their political views and past actions, they will get through? Or, and this is the worst, do they believe that the Filipino voters have very short memories, that we are so gullible and can be easily fooled or bought?

As voters, let us show to the politicians that we are better than they. We have better sense than they; we are more discerning. Let us show them, ipamukha natin sa kanila, that we know how to choose!

We have today till election time in May – more than 6 months – to choose the candidates whom we can trust. Fortunately, not all who registered as candidates are worthless. There are gems among the pile of dirt. We just have to cull them. Starting today let us take time to know candidates. Certain criteria can be used to shift the good from the worthless or the trapos.

1.    Let us not believe on what they promise. It is not what they say they will do that show them their worth, but what they had done. Let us see their tract record. What have they accomplished so far, both in their personal lives and in their public service?

2.    Look at their personal lives. What a person is, that will be what he will do. If a person is not faithful to his commitment to his wife, will he be faithful to his office? If a person cannot take good care of his family, can he take care of town, province or district? If a person is a gambler, he will gamble his office! If a person is dirty is his speech and his views, he will be dirty as a public official.

3.    Let us not blindly vote by party lines. A good party can have rotten eggs, and likewise, a despised party can have a few jewels. Political parties in the Philippines do not count. Once in office they do not act as parties. Vote for individuals and examine each individual separately from his party mates. This means a good voter should be able to cross party lines. Transcend party politics.

4.    Do not vote for someone who is “winnable” according to survey results, name recall, or social media entries. Do not join the bandwagon. You are not wasting your vote by voting for one you believe in. By voting for a bad person because he is winnable, you are being an accomplice in destroying our country.

5.    Do not vote for those who belong to political dynasties. Political dynasties thrive because we vote for them. In fact, research well the background and the tract record of unknown candidates. They may well give fresh breath to politics in our country.

Every election gives us hope that there can be a better future. This will come about if we become better voters. Let us show to our trapos that as voters we are better than what they think we are!

Pinoy Version making waves

The Pinoy version was launched last September 13 during the book fair at the SMXC. Since then many have made comments about it, both for and against. In a way this is the first time that a version of the Bible has made waves in the public discourse. This itself is positive. It shows that people still care about the Bible and at the same time the comments inadvertently is a publicity itself about this version. Why the waves? What is this Pinoy Version?

Pinoy Version is a translation of the New Testament in the language that many people in the Metro Manila and many other Tagalog urban centers use in day-to-day conversation, especially among the educated young people. It is a translation in heterogeneous language, which in common parlance is referred to as Taglish. Allow me to take a sample text from Romans 15:14-15

“Mga kapatid, sure ako na talagang mabuti kayo at matalino, at kaya nyong turuan ang isat-isa. Pero sa sulat na ito, nilakasan ko ang loob ko para i–remind kayo tungkol sa ilang bagay. Ginawa ko ito dahil sa sobrang kabaitan ng Diyos sa akin.”

In the Magandang Balita Version this reads:

Mga kapatid, lubos akong naniniwalang kayo mismo ay puspos ng kabutihan at may sapat na kaalaman, kaya’t matuturuan na ninyo ang isa’t isa. Gayunman, sa sulat na ito’y naglakas-loob akong paalalahanan kayo tungkol sa ilang bagay. Ginawa ko ito dahil sa kagandahang-loob ng Diyos sa akin.”

As a point of comparison, the New American Revised Version puts these verses this way:

“I myself am convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and also able to admonish one another. But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by God.”

It is up to you which version is more understandable to you.

The Pinoy Version is a project of the Philippine Bible Society (PBS), which is an ecumenical body made up of Roman Catholics, mainline Protestant churches, Evangelical and free Churches in the Philippines whose mission is to spread the Bible in languages that people can readily understand at prices that they can afford, so that there be greater diffusion of the Bible among Pilipinos, believing that eventually this can bring about national transformation. The PBS has been in the Philippines for more than 100 years and it has translated and continues to translate the Bible into the many languages of our nation. It also makes versions that are suited for children, for the youth, for women and for serious study. It even came out with a diglot (two versions side-by-side) Bible of Greek and Pilipino.

We should know that New Testament is originally written in Koine Greek, a language which no one now uses. To make it understandable to people therefore, it has to be translated into the languages that people now use. These present-day languages are called the recipient languages. Since these recipient languages are in use, they change. Hence the English of Shakespeare is very different from present-day English. Even American English is different from British English. The same is true with Tagalog. The Tagalog used by Balagtas is very different from the Tagalog being used in MetroManila, which is also different from the Tagalog used in the towns around Taal lake in Batangas. Pinoy version is intended for the many people in the National Capital Region, especially the young who have at least reached high school education. Because of our exposure to both English and Tagalog, we tend to mix both languages but with Tagalog as the base language. This is what we call heterogeneous language - our Taglish.

We cannot say the Pinoy version is disrespectful of the word of God as we cannot say that our Taglish is disrespectful. It is characteristic of our Christian understand of God that He is a revealing God. He is a God who reveals himself, who makes himself known because he is love and he wants to be loved. God reveals himself in so many ways – in creation, in our consciences, in our experiences, in the people whom he sent, in the faith communities to whom he has entrusted his message, in the Bible, but most especially in His Son Jesus Christ who became like us, a man sharing our humanity without losing his divinity. When Jesus became man he spoke the language of his people. So the day-to-day language becomes the way that we can know God. Even up to know, the preaching that we hear in Church is in Taglish.

The Pinoy version has been a work that has taken around ten years. First, the Gospel of Mark was done and was circulated for people to comment and to see the acceptability of the version. Then the letter to the Galatians too was translated and circulated. The research showed that more than half the people consulted among different sectors and denominations gave positive feedbacks. The work then started, gathering a team of young people from various Christian denominations plus experts in the biblical languages. Each verse has gone through the scrutiny of the translation team seeing to the fidelity both to the original language (Greek) and to the present way that people speak and understand in Taglish. Street and tabloid words were avoided, but taking care that the emotions behind the original language be not watered down. Let us take Galatians 3:1-3

“O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (New American Revised Version)

“Mga hangal kayong mga taga-Galacia! Sino ang nakagayuma sa inyo? Maliwanag na ipinahayag na sa inyo kung paano namatay si Jesu-Cristo sa krus! Sabihin nga ninyo, tinanggap ba ninyo ang Espiritu sa pamamagitan ng mga gawa ayon sa Kautusan o sa pamamagitan ng inyong pananalig sa inyong narinig tungkol kay Cristo? Talagang napakahangal ninyo! Nagsimula na kayo sa Espiritu, at ngayo’y nais pa ninyong magtapos sa pamamagitan ng inyong sariling lakas!” (Magandang Balita version)

Wala talaga kayong utak mga Galatians! Di kayo nag-iisip! Nakulam ba kayo?! Di ba ang linaw-linaw naman na namatay si Jesus Christ sa krus?! Saguntin nyo nga ako, paano nyo tinanggap ang Holy Spirit? Sa pagsunod nyo ba sa Jewish Law o dahil narinig nyo at naniwala kayo sa mensahe ng Magandang Balita? Mga bobo ba talaga kayo? Nasimulan nyo na ngang maranasan ang kapangyarihan ng Holy Spirit sa buhay nyo, tapos ngayon, aasa kayo sa sarili nyong lakas?!” (Pinoy Version)

No translation is the exact copy of the original. In every translation some connotations are added and some are taken away because no language is an exact copy of another language. The best is to read the original language, therefore. The second best solution is to read several translations at the same time so that one may get a more complete understanding of the meaning of a text. What connotation one translation may lose, another may gain. Meanwhile let us not deprive those who can profit from the Pinoy version. If it does not suit the taste of one, then he/she can get a translation or version that is more suitable to him/her. What is important is that we all read the Bible in the version that best speaks to us. God speaks. We listen!

Let us end with this acknowledgement of Pope Benedict XVI:

The inculturation of God’s word is an integral part of the Church’s mission in the world, and a decisive moment in this process is the diffusion of the Bible through the precious work of translation into different languages (Verbum Domini 115)

The Pinoy Version is a translation of the Bible for today’s Tagalog speakers in many of our urban centers.