2nd Week of Lent
Reflections on GeNesis 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A / MaTthew 21:33-43, 45-46
by Frank D. B. Savadera, SJ
In
the year 2000 during the month of December,
Bishop Karl Lehman, president of
the German Bishops’ Conference created a big stir in the media by saying in
almost a cryptic way what others perhaps feared or were just too embarrassed to
suggest: “the Pope would surely have the courage to
say if he thought he was incapable of doing his job.” Imagine someone saying: HOY
BAKA NAMAN MEDICINE IS NOT FOR YOU ... LAGI KANG NAGKAKASAKIT. YOU DO NOT HAVE
THE ENERGY FOR IT ANYMORE!
People elsewhere of course inferred from the statement that the
president of the German Bishops Conference had called for the Pope’s
resignation. For his statement, Bishop Lehman who of course was referring to Pope
John Paul II ... was severely criticized for being insensitive to the weak and
frail physical condition of the incumbent and well loved pope. As we all know, Pope John Paul II did not
choose to resign and we were all witnesses ... with the help of television of
course ... as to how he faltered and faltered ... how his health deteriorated
until his eventual death. Thirteen years
after the German bishops suggested the possibility of a papal resignation, a
German pope resigns. (An editorial
cartoon features a sketch of St. Peter’s Basilica with a thought or
conversation bubble saying: WHAT! What did you say will you give up for
Lent?) When some of us think of giving
up at least temporarily some of our vices ... Benedict XVI gives up his office
for Lent.
Friends
today, still in the Year of Faith, we grapple with the fact that Benedict XVI
had indeed stepped down. The office of
the Pope had been declared vacant (SEDE VACANTE). We ask: Who takes care of all of us now? Will
this be the end of the world? This experience is just so new to us that one of
my Facebook friends blurted out in her
facebook account: It’s almost like
having your father saying ... I’m giving
up ... I’m packing all my things ... and you no longer have a father. I resign!
What
a coincidence one must say that our first reading today talks about a character
Joseph ... the namesake of Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger). Joseph, called by his brothers as the “master
dreamer” was himself the favorite of his father Israel and the proud owner of the
famous techni-colored dreamcoat. In our
account today, Joseph got stripped of his tunic, got thrown into a pit while
his brothers asked: We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”
What
do we make out of the story of Joseph?
What do we make out of this story of another Joseph aka Benedict XVI our
Pope who resigned from office? Joseph’s
brothers made fun of him and condescendingly called him the “master dreamer”
... which in fact HE WAS ... not so much because he slept a lot (as some of us
do) ... but more so because he was a man of great vision.
We
would like to think that Benedict XVI himself is a man of great vision ... a
master dreamer himself. And I think this
is how we are all called ... to be MASTER DREAMERS ourselves. But what separates a SIMPLE DREAMER from a
MASTER DREAMER? We refer to the gospel
and say that perhaps the TENANTS who drove away the servants of the landowner
had dreams for themselves. They toiled
... cultivated the land ... and work hard ... and worked hard we would like to
believe on the land while the landowner was away. They had dreams and much like normal dreamers
... I’m sure they wanted something good for themselves and for their
families. Nothing is really wrong with
that. Our question however remains: What makes a simple dreamer different from a
master dreamer? Joseph was a master
dreamer ... and we would like to think that Benedict is himself a master
dreamer. I think the clue comes from our
Gospel today. Amidst all our toiling ...
dreaming and cultivating the land ... the work that had been entrusted us to do
... the SON of the landowner comes. Do
we recognize him? The fault of the
tenants I would like to believe was that the weight of their personal dreams
simply overwhelmed them ... to the point
of plotting to obliterate the very presence of HIM who makes it possible for
all of us to dream.
Friends
... to be MASTER DREAMERS for me means simply continuing with the good that we
are doing everyday ... not so much because it is required ... not so much
because I want to have better grades and be recognized in my field ... not so
much that this will assure me of a good future ... but more so because this is
all about SHARING IN THE DREAM OF THE GREAT MASTER HIMSELF ... and BENEDICT
could not have said it most plainly:
Amidst the growing complexity of the
world around us ... our dreams become more meaningful ... when BEHIND ALL OF
THESE DREAMS we are able to say: DEUS CARITAS EST. God is the LOVE behind all our capacities to
dream. We become MASTER DREAMERS as WE
SHARE in making more known that love.
When
I was a Jesuit novice ... I was assigned to the Emergency Room of the
Philippine General Hospital. Of course,
we know that the PGH is not a first class hospital ... it is a government
hospital which caters to the poorest of the poor. I’M NOT GOOD WITH HOSPITALS ... what more ...
in a government hospital! The smell can
be quite bad ... and I can remember the stench even as I speak to you
today. They had what they called WAITING
ROOMS ... where people were cramped in one place because they had not enough
rooms to accommodate all the charity patients.
They had these waiting rooms ... and I realized that when you are POOR
... YOU WAIT ... and the poor wait ... they wait not only for their “bantays”
... they wait for blood donors and other benefactors ... they wait to DIE. It was just a so chaotic place for me ... and
I remember asking myself WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
WHY DO I NEED TO BE HERE? This is
such a DEPLORABLE SNAKE PIT.
Friends
... much like the experience of Joseph, I realized that I needed to be stripped
of my TECHNI-COLORED DREAMCOAT ... my pride ... my overconfidence ... my
self-sufficiency ... and know that there is GRACE in recognizing my
HELPLESSNESS amidst seeming hopelessness around me. I don’t know if you think of your current status now as a SNAKE PIT (hwag
naman sana) ... pero I’m sure it’s hard
to be here ‘di ba? But as the story of
Joseph tells us ... there is grace in staying in our own pits ... at least for
us to understand that it is not my will and effort ... but God’s will and
effort that saves us and pulls us out always of all our difficult situations. We pray for Benedict XVI as he strips himself
off of the papal DREAMCOAT and stays in his private pit to experience all the
more God’s presence and grace. And that
prayer is for all of us as well.
The
brothers of Joseph, in an almost nasty
remark say: “We shall then see what
comes of his dreams.” Hindi ba we have a
saying LIBRE NAMAN ANG MANAGINIP! DREAM
KA LANG NG DREAM! At the end of the day
however, we can acknowledge that we can work and work ... but what comes out of
our initial dreaming is beyond us. There
is such a thing as DESTINY .... and this makes dreaming more exciting. I’m sure Joseph never even expected to be a
powerful man in Egypt. He was in the
Pharaoh’s prison for a time. What comes
out of our DREAMING ... I think ... is a greater SENSE of TRUST and FAITH ...
that something GOOD WILL COME OUT of all our small and even perhaps unrecognized
efforts. What can come out of Benedict’s
resignation? ... a greater and more strengthened Church ... I believe ... not so much
dependent on the leadership of any person or pope but on the Spirit that keeps
the Church alive through many difficult times.
As
Benedict himself said: “... I
always knew that the Lord is in the boat, and I always knew that the boat of
the Church is not mine, not ours, but it is His. And He will not let her sink,
it is He who leads it, certainly also through the men he has chosen, because so
He has willed it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can obscure. And
that is why today my heart is filled with gratitude to God because He has never
left me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His love.” Friends ... we are asked: what really becomes of our dreams? We really don’t know di ba? What we know
is: OUR TRUST and FAITH in God’s spirit
will keep our boats afloat ... and our consolation comes from the fact that God
will not allow that boat to sink (for now).
· We are called to be master dreamers ...
attuning our dreams to those of the Master’s ... he who makes it possible for
us to dream in the first place.
· We are invited to check how we are being
stripped of our techni-colored dreamcoats ... our pride and false images of
ourselves. How are we asked to stay in
our own respective pits and experience the grace of being pulled out from that
pit by something other than ourselves;
· What comes out of our dreams? We do not really know? But then perhaps a greater faith ... that we
will be sustained because it is the Spirit that maneuvers and keeps our boat
afloat each time.
