Instruments of Real Change and Hope

Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration
Gawad Kalinga Thanksgiving mass
August 5, 2006 Ateneo de Manila High School Chapel

I grew up in a time when the Philippines were rebuilding after the successful and peaceful revolution that happened in 1986. I was six years old then when EdSA revolution happened, and it was full of promises and hope. People are jubilant and expected changes in the real sense of the word, a transition from oppression, poverty and unfreedom. Twenty years have passed and ask myself whatever happened to those promises?

Kung titignan natin ang mga pahayagan ngayon, sari-sari ang mga problema. Nariyan ang problema ng OFW’s mula sa Lebanon, na minsan mas gugustuhin pa nilang manatili sa Lebanon kaysa sa umuwi ng Pilipinas, bakit? Sa kadahilanang wala raw silang kinabukasan dito. Pareho rin ng dahilan ang mga matatagumpay na nagsipagtapos at ngayon naghahanap ng mas luntiang pastulan sa US, Europa at iba pang bansa. Sabi nila sa akin, wala raw mangyayari sa kanila kung mananatili pa rin dito. Nariyan din ang mga balita patungkol sa mga misteryosong pagpatay sa mga aktibista na naghahanap ng pagbabago at mga tagapamahayag nagsisiwalat ng mga kaguluhang ito. Ang sabi ng isang kamag-anak ng biktima “wala na bang katapusan ang mga pagpatay na ito?” Ang kaguluhan sa mindano na tila walang katapusan. At ang usapin ng Cha-cha kung saan naghahanap ng pagbabago sa pagpapatakbo ng Gobyerno.

In this time leaves us wondering when this dark cloud shall lift? When pain and discomfort will no longer pile upon each other? While such times last, we realize the power that despair yields upon us and so that some of us would say, “there is no hope in this country anymore.”

Change. I think most of us here desire for a change. Breaking from this cynicism of selfishness and blame we all wanted to have a real and lasting change. A change that will bring a future hope. A change that will renew the face of the earth. And our Lord today invites us and calls us to be an instrument of change and hope.

Brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration. And what is this all about? I think, this feast talks about real change. In our Gospel today we see the mystery of the Transfiguration, for Jesus, consists in expressing all the light and glory of his divinity. Jesus, who is man, wants to show in the clearest possible way that he is also, and first, God. Also, that which is human in him, while remaining truly human, takes on an appearance which completely surpasses all that the mind of man can conceive within itself: in transfiguring/ changing himself before his apostles, Jesus presents himself to them as a man who, if it were taken any further, would appear to no longer be man, but only God. In short, Jesus wants to show to those who belong to him everything that God offers, for all eternity, to the whole of the humanity that he assumed and regenerated through the mystery of his Incarnation and that of the Paschal Redemption.

The Gospel however, turns the eyes of believes not towards the past, but toward the future. It shows the royal way that the glory of God has traced through the world, in Jesus whom the apostles saw on the mountain of the transfiguration. But no matter how brilliant that light was, it remains a “lamp shining in a dark place” of time, “until day dawns and the morning star” Christ glorified “rises in your hearts.” The Transfiguration is something to hope for and work on.

Hope because we have seen Jesus with the eyes of faith! We have heard the voice of God; we have heard the voice of the One seated on the Throne in Daniel’s vision. They have been given an appreciation of the "all of God’s Plan" for creation. An understanding of the connection God makes with the leadership of Moses, with the call of the Prophets, and with the Way of Jesus. For God gives us a glimpse right now, of what is going to happen in the future that something we can hope for.

Moreover, it is something to work on. Today, as we listen to the words of these Scriptures, Jesus challenges us to see the face of God in our own lives. Jesus challenges us to see God in the people who are a part of our lives, in the people who need us, who challenge us, who beg us, who deny us, who hurt us, who envy us, and on and on. Jesus challenges us to see the face of God and to respond to the voice of God with all that we are. Jesus will not be satisfied if we build "tents" to stay and relish what "has happened". Jesus will not be satisfied if we receive the Eucharist today and savor it! Jesus, once again, calls us to live the gift of Eucharist as we move forward, as we take to next step. Jesus calls us to find our way to the New Jerusalem by continuing to respond to the Spirit that is within us-the Spirit that is the very center of our lives and this is the miracle when we let ourselves be an instrument of real change and hope.

Mga kapwa manggagawa sa Gawad Kalinga, ang pagbabagong anyo ni Hesus ay isang himala na nangyari. At sa mga oras na ito, isang himala rin ang nagyayari. Pagmasdan ninyo ang buong paligid, hindi ang mga santo o palamuti ng kapilyang ito kungdi ang mga tao naririto ngayon. Kayo ang mga instrumento ng pagbabago at pag-asa ng bansang ito. Sa pagsasakripisyo ninyo ng sarili at ibigay ang ito para sa kapwa upang mabailik ang kanilang dignidad, upang muling itayo ang kanilang buhay sinimulan ninyo ang isang malaki at radikal na pagbabago. Isang radikal na pagbabago na pinag-aalab ng ating pag-ibig sa Diyos at sa kapwa. Na imbes na sabihing ibagsak, isinisigaw ang mga katagang Itayo, na imbes na magsisihan tayong lahat ay nagtutulungan, at imbes na mag uhanan tayo mismo ay walang iwananan. At sa kabuuan, tayong lahat na natitipon dito, sa kabila ng pagkakaiba: mga mag-aaral, mga guro, mga volunteers, mga magulang, mga administrador ay pinagbubuklod ng isang mahalaga at banal na layunin. Kung saan walang mayaman o mahirap, nakapagtapos ng pag-aaral o hindi, matanda o bata, kristiano o muslim. Makikita natin ngayon ang isang pag-asa, isang pangako ng bagong bukas, isang maayos at payapang bansa kung saan wala nang kaguluhan, wala nang gutom at wala na ang kahirapan. Taas noong maipagmamalaki sa buong: kay sarap palang maging isang Pilipino.

At lahat ng ito ay hindi nanatiling pangarap lamang o ngunit isang pangarap na abot kamay na. Sa pakikipagtulungan natin sa bawat isa, maabot ang isang layunin upang bigyan ng pag-asa ang mga taong lugmok sa kawalan ng pag-asa, at muling itatayo ang bayang Pilipinas sa espiritu ng pagmamahal sa kapwa, pag-asa at pagkakaisa ng bawat Pilipino. Mula sa mga pagbabagong ito, makikita natin ang isang himala, isang himala na sumisinag sa ating mga puso. Isang pagbabagong anyo mula sa atin. Sapagkat hinayaan natin ang ating mga sarili maging isang instrumento ng pagbabago at pag-asa.

The Transfiguration assures us that God gives to each of us, according to our need, our own mountaintop experiences of His love for us. Each of us has been given our own special moments and experiences of God’s grace through Gawad Kalinga. He has revealed His glory and goodness to us perhaps through special miracles of grace where He has touched our hearts in unique and unmistakable ways. And these miracles enables us now to touch the hearts of the others through our work in GK. And through the other that whom we serve, we will see the face and the glory of God who is living among us.

Let me end this sharing with a story. One day a Rabbi asked his students : when do you know that the night has ended and the sun is rising? One student answered “if you see clearly if the animal from a far is a lion not a tiger. The Rabbi answered wrong. Then another student answered if you see clearly that the fruit of a tree is an apple not a pear. Wrong, the Rabbi said. It is when you look on the face of a man and woman, and you can recognize and say that he or she is your brother and sister otherwise if this does not happen, no matter what time it is, it is still night.

Nawa’y magpatuloy tayong lahat na maging isang instrumento ng pagbabago, at instrumento ng pag-asa sa ating bansa at sa buong mundo.