Good Fortune for the New Year

IF for Christmas people are busy shopping for gifts and for food for the Noche Buena, for New Year people in the Philippines, and maybe in other countries also, are busy buying tokens that can assure good fortune for the coming year. Thus they buy round fruits to decorate their tables at the turn of the year. They prepare pancit for long life.  They buy things to make noise with. The bolder ones still buy firecrackers, even from illegal sources, while others content themselves with paper and plastic trumpets or drums to scare off the bad spirits as the new year enters. Then as the hour strikes midnight on December 31, they light the whole house and open all windows and faucets to invite the good fortune in; they throw or stick monies around the house to attract other monies in for the coming year. Oh, what crazy things people do to attract Lady Luck in! Of course, they do not really believe that these are effective, but who knows? Nothing wrong in doing these rituals. They may bring luck after all. Anyway, they make people happy.

There is a deep ingrained belief in us that something or somebody influences our lives. Is that the unpredictable Fate or Destiny? Is that the Fend Shui that if we just play the game right, things will turn out right for us? These forces are irrational after all and so we have to attract them, by louder noise, by more delicious food, by the right colors or number combinations, etc.

As Christians we also share the belief that there is a higher force above us who influences our life. This is not a blind force, though. It is a person who is intelligent, powerful and loving. It is God. He does influence our life. He intervenes. He comes not to punish or to make life difficult; he comes into our lives to save, to give life and to share his joy. This is the meaning of Christmas. God is with us. He is no longer different from us. He is Immanuel.

Because of Christmas we Christians accept the New Year with serenity and confidence. We do not believe in blind luck but in the loving Providence of God. Whatever happens in the coming year, we know that we are in the hands of a loving God. He guides our life. He has already given us his only Son, what more can he not give us? That is why for those who believe in God, everything turns out well. “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) This is our conviction as we face the uncertainties that the new year may bring.

If this is so, we greet the new year with thanksgiving and trust. Thanksgiving for the year that is passing away – for all the good things that God has given us, even for those things whose benefits we do not yet appreciate, and trust, that the loving God is with us. Thus, we can truly say: “I have the strength for everything through him (Jesus) who empowers me.” (Phil. 4:13)

Continuous Hope for Peace

Peace is a constant longing in people’s hearts. It is so much desired and so much needed in our world, but at the same time it is so elusive. It is elusive because peace is not something that can be achieved once and for all. It needs continuous effort to cultivate and maintain. We experience this in our own small family circles. Constant effort is to be made, and by all, in order to have peace in the family. One time everything is serene and everyone is happy. Then all of a sudden, unexpectedly and many times unwilled, quarrels and misunderstandings happen.  Once peace is broken, we start all over again to bring it about. If this is true in a small and intimate group as the family, how much more arduous is the work for peace in the world? Peace does not just happen. We all have to make conscious effort to make it happen.

There are many initiatives to make people conscious of the importance of peace among and within peoples. Back then in 1927, the World Day of Prayer for Peace was established, to be celebrated every first Friday of March of each year. The movement was initiated by Christian women in North America in the late 19th century.

The World Council of Churches calls churches and parishes since 2004 to observe the International Day of Prayer for Peace every September 21, coinciding with the United Nations-sponsored International Day of Peace on the same day.

In the Roman Catholic Church, since 1967, we have been celebrating the World Day of Peace every January 1, the start of the calendar year. On the very first day of the year, as we all look forward to a better future, the hope and striving for peace is set before us. On this day, besides the call to prayer, the Holy Father gives a message on what peace is and how we can achieve peace in the world. It is good to have a glimpse of the messages of Pope Francis since he became Pope by running through their titles:

2014: Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway of Peace

2015: No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters.

2016: Overcome Indifference and Win Peace

2017: Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace

2018: Migrants and Refugees: men and women in search of peace

2019: Good Politics is at the Service of Peace

2020: Peace as a journey of hope: dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion.

These reflections make us more conscious of the multifaceted aspects of peace. It is not just a simple idea of non-violence, much less of having no war. These messages also widen our commitment to building a culture of peace in our communities, starting from our families and churches.

Peace should truly be one of our foremost efforts in the Philippines. We have the longest running communist insurgency problem in Asia, which has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands. It has caused a lot of animosity and hatred among the victims of fighting. When will our top brass and our government leaders learn that peace can never be achieved by force of arms? Now, there is a ray of hope that both sides will come to the negotiation table again. As the message of the Holy Father says, the journey of hope is done through dialogue and reconciliation. Ecological conversion is also a necessary ingredient. The environment is being destroyed because of greed and lack of respect of nature. Injustice and violence are also being done to the poor because of greed and lack of respect, not only of nature, but even of our own laws. Just think of the trumped up charges and the planting of “evidence” being done to farmer and labor leaders! Oh, how we need the Pope’s message for peace this year!

Green Christmas

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Many are familiar with Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,”   especially its rendition by Bing Crosby. It is an old Christmas carol, going as far back as 1942, yet it is still sung. But is there still a serene white Christmas? In our time, in many places there are no longer snows on Christmas. Either they come too early or too late. Or if there be one, it is no longer a serene white Christmas but a blizzard. All this is due to climate change. Would it be better to wish and dream for a green Christmas first so that the white Christmas may come back?

What is a green Christmas? We may also call it an ecological Christmas. We are called to have a change of lifestyle if we are to avert disastrous wayward weather conditions. This call for change of lifestyle also means a change in the way we behave at Christmas time.

Let not the culture of consumerism eat up our Christmas. The more we buy, the more we throw away. So let us buy less. Oh, the many useless things that are sold and bought during Christmas. Yes, people have more money, what with all the bonuses, the 13^th month paychecks and the aguinaldos people receive. A lot of these monies unfortunately end up buying useless things and useless gifts. They end up in the cupboard or in the trash can!

Even the food we consume during this season are not nutritious, and even harmful to our health. Thus blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels shoot up, and in the process we consume more medicines. Many traditional Christmas foods are harmful, like ham, cheese, cakes, lechon and chocolates. A green Christmas can also mean green leafy vegetables for our Christmas meals. Have we tried this?

How many plastics litter our streets, parks and malls during the Christmas season? So much money is spent on Christmas wrappers alone, and many glittering ones are non-biodegradable! Plastic toys end up in the dumpsites soon after Christmas.

Then follows the New Year celebration with the smell of obnoxious powder from fireworks. The streets are then littered with firecracker wrappers on New Year Day. Another set of harmful foods follows for the media noche meals.

So what would a green Christmas be? Let it be a Christmas moderate in spending and shopping, but more of togetherness in activities and sharing with families and neighbors. It would be good to cook together, play together and pray together. Companionship is what we need, and not things. Instead of watching TV on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve for the countdowns being done in New York, London or the Vatican, why not laugh together in the family, tell stories of what happened the past year and share one another’s dreams and wishes for the coming year? These catching up with one another’s lives will be etched more in our memories than the antics they do in the TV shows half way across the globe!

Let us be more creative in celebrating a green Christmas and not allow our celebrations to be determined by sales and TV shows. It does not take much, and it does not cost much, to be happy and contented together. No one were happiest on the first Christmas other than Mary and Joseph. They had no light. They had no food. They did not have the comfort of a bed or even a warm room. There were no sounds. In simplicity, poverty and silence, they were most happy. They had a new life with them. They had Jesus with them. Theirs was truly a green Christmas!

Water Privatization

THE front pages of newspapers in the past two weeks speak about the rants—and threats—of Duterte against water concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water. Last October he threatened to have government take over the control of the water distribution. He even wanted to file plunder, corruption and economic sabotage cases against officials who negotiated the deal back in 1997. Then there were talks to rescind the contracts. Now it has become milderk—to renegotiate the contract to take away the alleged onerous provisions. Among these is the requirement for the government to pay for the companies' business losses while prohibiting it from interfering in fixing the water rates. Based on these provisions, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in Singapore ordered the government to pay Manila Water 7.4 billion pesos for losses stemming from rejected water rate hikes back in 2015. In 2017 the government was also ordered to reimburse 3.4 billion pesos for Maynilad’s losses. In total that would be a whopping 10.8 billion pesos! Duterte fumed and categorically said that the government will not pay! Besides, the deal is claimed to be anomalous because the contracts were extended to 2037, a decade before the original expiration of the agreements in 2022.

The Ramos administration signed Republic Act No. 8041, or the National Water Crisis Act, in 1997, which paved the way for full privatization of the capital’s water sector. For the past two decades, Manila Water, owned by the Ayalas, and Maynilad, originally owned by the Lopezes but now by the Pangilinans, have dominated Metro Manila’s water supply under concessionaire deals with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS). The MWSS is the government agency tasked to ensure a stable and adequate supply of water. Ayala’s Manila Water has control over Metro Manila’s East Zone, which covers 23 cities and municipalities, including the business districts of Makati and administrative city of Quezon City. Panglinan’s Maynilad, meanwhile, controls the so-called West Zone, which covers 17 cities and municipalities, including large parts of old Manila. Back in 1997 the deal was hailed as one of the most successful large-scale privatizations in the developing world. Today the Metropolis has the world’s most expensive water utility service. What has gone wrong?

Yes, there may have been corruption along the way. Both concessionaires may have been very inefficient too. But what is deeply wrong is the privatization of basic services. Water is one basic service, so also is transportation and electricity. It is no brainer to see that the private business companies do not primary engage in business to serve the people. They do business to gain profit. That is the raison d’etre of business.  If they do serve, the service given may just be a by-product of their business. On the other hand, government has the mandate to serve. It is supported by the people’s taxes so that it may serve, especially the basic services that the people need. The government engage in basic services not to gain but to serve. The people pay them for this. So why give basic services to private business? The reason usually given is that private business is more efficient than government. Should this really be so? Government too can be efficient as we see in many countries. Private business can also be inefficient, and when they are, it is at the cost of the people, as our experience now with our metro-rail systems, our electricity, and our water rates and services. The services are poor, and very poor; and the rates are high, very high. Where is government in this? Is it there to support big business or to serve the people?

Simbang Gabi

For Filipino Catholics, there is no Christmas without the Simbang Gabi. Simbang Gabi is a Filipino custom that has been forged centuries ago to prepare for Christmas Day by a novena of dawn masses. Originally, the nine-day masses were done only as dawn, as early at four o’clock in the morning, hence the name “Misa de Gallo,” literally the “mass of the cock,” that is, at the time that the cocks start crowing. This started in rural Philippines of those early times. Farmers woke up early and before they went to the fields, they first attended the Holy Mass. This custom also has a Marian motif. It is a devotion to Mother Mary as she expects the birth of her son. During Martial Law in the seventies, when curfew was imposed, in the urban areas they started to have anticipated Simbang Gabi masses in the evening before the curfew struck. In metropolis many people now prefer to go to mass in the evening to wait for the evening rush hour traffic to ease up. For many Filipinos overseas, they cannot have masses in the early morning because of the cold or other logistical reasons, so they have the Simbang Gabi in the late afternoon. Filipinos have adapted, but they must have the Simbang Gabi – the 9 days of masses in preparation for Christmas.

Nowadays many see the Simbang Gabi as an act of sacrificial love to complete the 9 days. It is really a sacrifice to wake up early or to go home late because it is done daily, especially for many working people, who have regular jobs. Thus it truly becomes a “Misa de Aguinaldo.” It is their gift to Jesus.  So they are happy to do it. They feel closer to the Lord and they are satisfied to do something special for him.

In the Church we find the Simbang Gabi a unique opportunity to enliven the faith of the people. Imagine, to have all our churches bursting at the seams with so many people praying for 9 consecutive days! When the preaching is done in the proper way, the people grow more in the knowledge of the faith listening to Bible readings and homilies. There are many people who do not regularly go to church but they make it a point to come to the Simbang Gabi masses. So, every year their faith is given a boost. Of course, not all have the good intention to really worship the Lord and pray. There are many who go to these masses because of the barkada, or because they want to watch the girls, or the boys. But God can make use of these mundane reasons to touch their hearts. Any small effort to draw close to God can have beneficial effects and can be an occasion for grace to enter their lives.

Many customs have grown because of the Simbang Gabi tradition. There are the bells that toll joyfully in the wee hours of the morning. The Christmas lanterns or parols and the Christmas lights regale the sight of people as they come to church in the darkness of the night or in the early morning. There are the native foods that await the church goers as they go home, like the puto bumbong, the bibingka or the hot chocolate drink that are now associated with Christmas. These have become added attractions for young and old which draw them to continue this practice. Indeed, Simbang Gabi has become a cultural feature for many.

The challenge for the institutional church is how to make the most out of this practice to bring people to faith in the Son of God who became one of us, the Immanuel. So, although the Advent season is one of the heaviest work load of the priests, we make it a point to attend to the needs of the people. There is already a thirst for God that is occasioned by this tradition. We do our best to quench this thirst by feeding the people well with good homilies and meaningful liturgical celebrations.