Biting the Bullet or Cutting Corners

by Frank D.B. Savadera, SJ

One time, as a teacher in one of our schools, I caught a student red handedly CHEATING during  MIDTERM exams.  Just like any teacher, I was angry ... very angry. Just like any teacher however, I tried my best to keep my composure.  I approached the student, got his cheat sheet and marked his paper “Caught Cheating!  Please see me after the exam.”    As expected, he was profusely apologizing: “I’m sorry!  I’m sorry!”  Forgive me, Brother (brother pa ako niadto).  I didn’t get to study enough last night ... and I need to pass this exam.  Sorry ... that I cheated! 

I think you would know if you encounter anyone who is truly sincere with his apologies.   “I am sorry” can be quite a HOLLOW phrase if we truly, truly do not mean it.  But this student of mine was SINCERE!  PRAISE GOD!  At the end of our conversation, I just needed to tell him:  DON’T SAY SORRY TO ME!  PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO YOURSELF!  You have every right and opportunity to live your life as a DIGNIFIED HUMAN PERSON.  But you have pulled yourself LOW and VERY LOW.   Your ACTION DEMEANS you.   "Look at you," I asked him:  "Do you feel good about yourself?  More than anything else ... you should say “SORRY” to yourself.  Your SELF does not deserve the treatment it is getting."

Friends, our Gospel tells us:  “Do not give what is holy to the dogs.”   I guess, this must bring us to the anthropology of how we had been created ... in the image and likeness of God.  Do not give what is holy to the dogs.   What is a human person?  What is a dog?  Can we observe ourselves ... our manner of carrying ourselves, presenting ourselves to others, the way we eat, the way we interact with others, etc.  The dog just like any animal can be quite INSTINCTIVE.  If it is hungry, it will grab onto the nearest food that it can find;  if angry, it bites; a word in BISAYA :  a dog can be quite MARU ... WISE ... especially the game dogs.  If they are hunting for food ... the focus simply is what I can get and of course, HOW I CAN GET AHEAD OF OTHERS IN THE PACK.  Maru!  What a dog!  He can be a champion dog or a breeder dog or a sniffer dog ... but at the end of the day ... he remains what he is ... a DOG!  As human persons, we are more than DOGS!  Do not throw your life to the DOGS as the saying goes!

The next imagery in the gospel is equally significant:  DO NOT THROW YOUR PEARLS BEFORE THE SWINE.  We know for a fact, that PEARLS take years and years to form at the bottom of the sea before it becomes what it is ... an important PEARL.  We relate this of course, to the many years and experiences that we had formed us as persons.   How are we making the most of our time ... making the most out of our mistakes and learnings?   Sometimes, I think of it as a waste to throw away food or stuff that simply got spoiled or turned unusable.   I shake my head and say:  SAYANG NAMAN.   Do not throw your pearls to the swine ... perhaps can speak to us about how we value life forming us as persons.  We need to learn from all our mistakes else ... SAYANG NAMAN di ba?  How are we asked not to take things for granted?  Do not throw your pearls to the swine.  I would like to think that God thinks of all us as improtant. This is what we are/  A gem is meant to be precious! 

The last reflection is about entering the NARROW GATE ... trodding through the difficult path.  In our day and age, we may tend to take the easiest way out of things; the more instant, the more quickie, the better.  But the gospel says:  enter the narrow gate, the gate where others dare not go.  But sometimes we catch ourselves CUTTING CORNERS ... shortchanging ourselves.  I don't know if you've met friends who simply couldn't take difficulty in stride.  There are those that are just so used to escaping and making life easy and convenient. Or you may have known those who simply depended on others for support and finding it hard to just stand on their own.   Will they actually learn anything?  Sometime somewhere, we will need to take life for what it is, right?  Bite the bullet if necessarily so.  Such is the narrow gate, right?  The bitter pill will need to be swallowed and only in doing so can a sick person get well.  We pray that we be delivered from our propensity to cut corners and bear and endure that which will make us better persons.