WHEN I was growing up in Porac, I always anticipated the coming of the Holy Week. It was a bonding time with my barkadas and made rounds of what we know in our youth as ‘puni’ and chanted some verses in the Bible. We considered it then as fun. Now in my adult years, I take now seriously the celebration of the Holy Week. For the millions of Catholics of the Christian world, it is time for more prayers and reflections. It is for everyone to reflect and do some soul searching. It is a way of understanding who we really are and what life is all about. You might discover that you need each day to strengthen your faith in our Creator.
“From dust you came, to dust you return”. It is said when you are born, there is only one direction, and that is death. And whosoever you are, even if you are at the loftiest of tower, death will overtake you. From womb to tomb. But never fear death, for in death there’s still life above. We commonly hear that from the priests’ homilies in the parishes when they are reminding the flock.
“The greatest gift God has given to mankind is death. I am trying to imagine people who would be in advanced age, bedridden, immobile and only under assisted living, who may silently invoke the Good Lord to end their sufferings. I have a friend whose father was in that state for more than 10 years and under the care of nurses for a certain good length of years. According to him, in some instances he visited his father, he would just take pity on his old man who kept asking who he was. The father can no longer recognize his own family but remember his friends and colleagues in the early years when he was still a practicing lawyer. It was a pitiful sight. I’ve heard he finally breathed his last.
Two close friends of mine, one from Manila and another from Angeles City, are still in a coma today. The first one was originally from Candaba town, was successful as a government contractor, handsome, quite popular among the opposite sex and dated several movie actresses but somehow bad health has befallen him.
The second fellow is also successful businessman dealing in big business in Subic. He was also in property development business but his money is no help to regain his consciousness. He has been in a coma for almost five years now. I know someone from Porac who was an ICU patient at the Angeles University Foundation Hospital for more than three years. She made a lot of money from several businesses, but spent all the profits for hospital bills. She at some point asked God to end her misery and pleaded death. God works in mysterious ways. It is always in God’s hands.
There are so many other true-to-life situations wherein people begged God for mercy to end their sufferings. “Father, why hast thou forsaken me?” Even our Lord Jesus Christ uttered these words towards heaven when his human body can no longer endure the pain. What more for ordinary mortals?
During this Holy Week I hope each one of us will try to contemplate our own life existence. That it may focus on the fragility of human life, that one day you will breathe your last, and that at the end you can make good accounting of what you have done for others.
A blindfolded lady symbolizes human justice, meaning she cares not if you are rich or poor, good looking or ugly, educated or unlettered, but her ears can still hear and be tempted of a whispered promise. Not in the Divine Justice, husticia divino. It will be right minus wrong since in my belief, God is all just. If you have done thousands of good deeds and committed few infractions and felt really sorry for your sins, God in the last judgment may reserve a seat for you in heaven.
Our life is only for today. Be nice, humble, generous and kind. Enjoy every moment because as it can be repeated, God works in mysterious ways.