IN ENGLISH, it means, “weighed but found wanting.”
This is the first time I have written an article with a Filipino worded title. For those of you born before the 70’s and still remember the movie with that title, directed by Lino Brocka, it would bring back memories of Christopher de Leon, Lolita Rodriguez, and Eddie Garcia.
No, I did not watch the movie! It was in Filipino, and at that time, I could not communicate nor understand Filipino. Ilocano is my third dialect. Filipino came in next, and only much later when I went down to Diliman for my third year college studies.
Why that title? I heard those lines from a priest during a funeral mass.
His message was simple.
How would the Lord assess you? How did you live your life? How did it end, when the time of reckoning comes?
Kulang ba? O sapat na?
Some people kid those who go to mass very often as “maglalampas sa langit,” meaning “they might go beyond heaven.” (I wonder what that place “beyond heaven” will be like.)
Unless you are a living saint, one wouldn’t even dream of being “sobra” or “lalampas sa langit.” Barely making the passing mark, and just entering heaven, with a grade of “75” would be just fine for me! Certainly, it would already be, by God’s grace, mercy, and love!
My dearest fellow heaven seekers,
There is a saying that we should aim for the moon, so that if we miss, we will still be among the stars.
Somehow the saying could also be used with our goal of making it to the eternal paradise.
Let us keep the faith, nurture the hope, express the love, and live according to His words, so that when the time comes, “Tinimbang, hindi kulang. Sapat!”
Matthew 16:27 says, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angel, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.”