Of Sounding Brasses and Tingling Cymbals

An old soldier had a weird dream.  He dreamed that he died and went to heaven.  It was a mistake because he believed that he should not be in heaven.  Yet he didn’t bother to immediately inform Saint Peter about it for fear that he would be transferred to where he thought he rightfully belonged which was either in purgatory or in hell.  He wanted to behold the beauty of heaven first.

Happy over Saint Peter’s mistake, this old soldier went on to relish the blessings – at least just before Saint Peter finds out.  He observed that heaven was not exactly what many on earth said it was, but it was beautiful just the same.  After some time when he thought he had finally seen enough he was ready to confront Saint Peter.  “Saint Peter”, he said, “There must be some mistake in me landing in heaven.  I was a soldier and killed a few people.  Although I am a Catholic, I seldom even go to church. Besides, there are so many people whom I know more deserved to be here.  Some of those who strongly preach God’s word are nowhere to be seen”.  “Ah, Mr General’, Saint Peter replied, “you almost didn’t make it but you see, we need to have a few soldiers in heaven, too, in the same manner that we bring in one or two lawyers as well.  As to the many people who preach the word of God, we can’t bring them all to heaven, otherwise we will become overcrowded.  But we do gather their tongues and store them in a special room in the celestial abode while their bodies remain in purgatory.  You see, most of them do not go beyond preaching the word of God.  They say that they were Christians but were not Christians enough in their actions.  Hence, it is only their tongues that deserve to be in heaven!”

In making up that story, I recall an article of the “Friendly Observer” published shortly after the February 2012 earthquake.  In that article, the “Friendly Observer” lauded the many “Christian” deeds of a lot of people who went out of their way and rushed to the aid of the many distressed victims of that disaster bringing with them food, potable water and clothes for people they hardly even know.  Many of them were just young students and ordinary citizens who seldom even go to church much more read the bible.  (My atheist friend, the “Friendly Observer”, even donated some amount for the Christian endeavors of a group of young boys involved in the aid operations).  Indeed those were Christian actions more golden that the verbatim perambulation of certain passages of the scriptures.  Christianity begins within one’s heart translated into good deeds symbolic of God’s love for his creations.  We may speak with the tongues of men and of angels but if we don’t have charity we are just like a sounding brass or a tingling cymbal (borrowed from 1^st Corinthian, Chapter 13), so the bible says. 

The homily of one Father P one Sunday mass reveals his observation as to how some of us can be very unchristian even in the house of God.  He observed that during communion, many rush ahead and sometimes even overtake the slow footed elderly and handicapped so that they can get the “body of Christ” ahead of the other as if wanting to get to heaven ahead of everyone else.  I get to observe this phenomenon many times in the case of an elderly woman who always sits in the same area of the church as me during Sunday masses.  During communion time, she painfully hobbles towards the communion line.  While already in the cue, the more healthy Christians insert themselves in front of her each time a gap is created between her and the next person, instead of helping her move up the line.  That observation was a clear but simple illustration of how unchristian we can be while supposedly engaged in the most Christian of all the sacraments.

As of late, there was massive noise from different sectors that aired their strong opposition to the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill now pending in Congress.  In the halls of Congress, debates echoed with emotion and sometimes even nasty words were spoken against each other.  Elsewhere, hordes of people were mustered to dramatize the opposition to the RH Bill.  Those were words of men and of angels.

Two weeks later, floods inundated Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces.  Worst that were affected were the poor families that live in makeshift shelters they call homes and who had more children than they can sustain.  Of course the response of many people to help their brother Filipinos was abundant.  Christian deeds were noted even from the most unlikely sectors – people from the movie industry, a sector full of vice and worldly pleasures as many would say.  Yet, they performed the most Christian of acts at the time when they mattered most.  How about the people who objected to the passage of the RH Bill because accordingly it is against the word of God?  They were nowhere to be found and must have retreated to the comforts of their homes in those calamitous times.  Were they just sounding brasses or tingling cymbals then?  I bet that when they die their tongues would surely go to heaven!

(This article was written for the News Record and published in  March 3, 2013 issue)

Jessica and Grace

In 2012, Jessica Sanchez, a young Filipino-Mexican-American singing sensation became a runner-up of a US reality show, “America Got Talent.” Sanchez, the 16 year old teenager, was born in California of a Filipina mother and a Mexican-American father.  She and her two brothers were raised in the US where they lived like any regular American kids. 

During the initial elimination rounds, however, Sanchez garnered the lowest number of votes from the audience which could have had her being eliminated from the contest.  Yet she remained in the show.  She so impressed the judges of her performance that they applied the “Judges Save” provision of the contest thus vetoing the votes of the audience.  Learning from that experience, she started to package herself as a Filipina-Mexican-American in order to woe the votes of the Filipino and the Mexican audiences.

Was Jessica Sanchez a Filipino?  This was a question that I posed to the students of my class in Rizal in a local college in the city.  (At that time, my students and I thought that Sanchez was born in the Philippines with both Filipino parents; that she went to the US as a young girl; and that her mother remarried to a Mexican-American).  Most of my students then said that she was definitely a Filipino and even a natural born Filipino.  Instead of proceeding with the discussion that I started, I let the issue hang without commenting.  That question was just an introduction for the lesson of the day.

The lesson for the day was about the genealogy of Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero.  Rizal’s maternal great great grandfather was a certain Eugenio Ursua who was of Japanese ancestry.  His paternal great great grandfather was a certain Domingo Lamco, a full bloodied Chinese who became a Christian and adopted Mercado as his family name.  Tracing down his ancestry further, we learned that Rizal (and his siblings) only had 42.5% Filipino blood.  It is no wonder then that in his travels in many parts of the world, Rizal was oftentimes mistaken for Japanese or a Chinese.  Despite his looks, though, most Filipinos would assert that he was the first Filipino and the greatest that ever lived.  So where did his being a Filipino come from? His being a Filipino came from his heart!

The young Jessica Sanchez looked every inch a Filipino but did she ever felt like she was one?  It was obviously that she did not.  She only identified herself as Filipino when she needed it in her quest for stardom.  But we cannot blame her.  She was a young woman of sixteen summers.  Would America be offended when she said that she was of Filipino or Mexican?  Of course not, she remained American all the while!

Today, we remember Jessica Sanchez who portrayed herself as a Filipino in her quest for personal glory.  We associate her with Grace Poe who also wanted to portray herself as a natural born Filipino citizen also in pursuit of her quest for personal glory – to fulfill her dream of becoming the President of the Philippines in continuance of her adoptive father’s failed dream of becoming President himself.  One upon a time, Grace Poe was a Filipino renegade who abandoned his native land and took allegiance in another country.  She was not like the many Filipinos who left to escape poverty.  She was rich and had all the material things that she can wish for.  She was mature enough when she made the choice.  She did not love the Philippines enough so she abandoned her Filipino citizenship.   

I wonder why in the many arguments against the citizenship of Grace Poe, nobody ever invoked the provisions of the highest law of the land, the Philippine Constitution.  As I mentioned in my previous article, Sec 2, Article 4 (Citizenship) of the 1987 constitution defines what a natural born Filipino citizen is.  It says that: “Natural born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship.”  Of her own free will and accord, Grace Poe renounced her Filipino citizenship to embrace the citizenship of her husband.  When she reacquired her Filipino citizenship, she performed a legal act.  Therefore by definition and the circumstances surrounding her case, she is now a naturalized Filipino citizen even if she can prove that she was a natural born citizen from the beginning.

So why is it so important that the President of the Philippines, the Vice President, the Senators and the Representatives should be natural born Filipino citizens? Let me quote former Justice Isagani Cruz of the Supreme Court.  He said: “The citizen of the Philippines must take pride in his status and cherish this priceless gift.  For sure he has the right to renounce the Philippines as he sees fit and transfer allegiance to a state with more allurements for him.  But having done so, he cannot expect to be welcomed back with open arms once his taste for his adopted country turns sour….  Citizenship is not a cheap commodity that can easily be recovered after its renunciation…..Hence, even if one’s naturalization (in another country) was later annulled, the subsequent development will not and cannot erase the fact that of his own free will and by his mature and deliberate choice, he expressly and forever renounced his allegiance to the Republic.  Renunciation is not a pro forma act.  It is a flat and absolute rejection of one’s former country, made in all sincerity and under oath, with the solemn resolve to cut off all political ties with and to withdraw one’s loyalty from it in favor of the new sovereign.  The petitioner who took such a step, cannot now say that he really did not mean it when he rejected the Philippines and renounced all his allegiance to this republic”

Jessica Sanchez was an American citizen by fate who wanted to appear Filipino to support her quest for stardom.  Yet, she never renounced her citizenship.  On the other hand, Grace Poe was a Filipino citizen at birth but renounced her country for the Land of Milk and Honey by her own intelligent and mature choice.  Now she wants to lead the country that she once turned her back on!  Can she convince the Filipinos that she was always a Filipino by heart?  Or should we rather say that she is a Filipino at this point in time because it is the most convenient thing to say?  In this context, the young Jessica Sanchez may appear nobler than Grace Poe!