Happy Easter 2008

AFTER THIS, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way.

Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples.

Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We also will come with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, "Children, have you caught anything to eat?" They answered him, "No."

So he said to them, "Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something." So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.

So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish.

When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.

Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you just caught."

So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, "Come, have breakfast." And none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they realized it was the Lord.

- John 21: 1-10

"Come, Have Breakfast."

This is one of my most favorite passages in the Gospel. My love and admiration for the Risen Christ grows in leaps and bounds whenever I ponder on the simplicity and the humility by which Our Lord have chosen to reveal Himself to His Apostles in this reading from the Gospel of John.

After undeniably proving everybody wrong, after His most glorious triumph over sin and death, after accomplishing perfectly the mission for which He was born into our world, after assuming absolute power over heaven and earth, instead of a long sermon about the many things wanting in us, His needful creatures, our most loving Lord Jesus Christ prepares a simple breakfast for us today, Easter Sunday.

"This is MY Lord and MY God", I affirm to myself in sweetest admiration, my heart warmed all gently aglow by waves of great affection.

This story shows us very clearly the greatness of the sacred humanity of our Lord. Because He is true God and true man, our Lord knows each of us very, very well. I can even say that our Savior, Jesus Christ, knows each of us more than we know ourselves. He knows both our most basic human needs as well as our most deepest spiritual requirements and how to perfectly balance them according to our advantage.

In simple contrast, there are many, many people in the world who would take selfish advantage of this unique position of supreme knowledge and absolute power according to their own personal interests. The temptation to do so must be enormously overpowering for anybody.

But we are not our Savior and thankfully so. We will never reach the absolute perfection of Jesus Christ our Lord, not in this life nor in eternity. We can become like Him out of our love for Him wherefore He will unite us to Himself according to the power of His grace. But none of us can ever be Him. God is God and man is man; that is the order of things and thankfully so for indeed, as shown by the simple words of our Risen Savior, "come, have breakfast", our God is a God we can put all our trust and rest.

In my own mind the message of this Gospel passage is this:

Let us each be free to become true Christians to the core, let us all be free to become closely united to our Lord in our heart of hearts and brave with Jesus and each other, the mountain of Christian perfection but in the same spirit of charity, the further out to our neighbors we should extend our Lord's open hand of Peace, the less particular we must become as Christians and the more common we are required to become as human beings like them not for our sake but for their own sake.

Therefore, any kind of open or secret discrimination whether it be by race, creed, class, age, sex, ethnicity, or anything besides proven character and adequate capability, is absolutely ruled out for those who sincerely intend to serve the Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no harmony to be found in similar things, there is no music in rote monotony. Only from our differences can harmony become possible and only from our harmony must we soon arrive at our peaceful coming together; to that one final hymn of taps, the undying salute to our last fading away; that solemn prelude to the new reveille of the bright and glorious morning from on high - towards a better, kinder, more peaceful world for all men, women and children of every nation of the one family of the nations of mankind.

The One Peace is possible only if it begins with the self.

Do we sincerely want peace?

Then let us begin to learn about peace. Let us begin to love the peace knowing that it will not come without much sacrifice from everybody without exception. Every Christian knows that the way of love is sacrifice. Therefore, let us also know that what love we sow in war, we reap in tears but what love we sow in peace, we reap in hope. O nation, once again I ask thee, how long are we going to struggle in tears before we begin to struggle in hope? The hope of our last fading away, the final martyr of our militant church on earth, the last sword to fall in battle in the name of peace, the last tear to fall shortly before the summertime reign of our Lord. One full cycle of the seasons of heaven.

Let us take seriously our own civic responsibilities as good and loyal citizens of our faithful Republic thereby doing honor to our Mother Protectress, giving back her strength and restoring dignity to her offices. If we can not trust to our leaders - imperfect as they are much like the rest of us, short of complete absolutism and outright tyranny and the forces of war that work to defeat our Democracy and murder the spirit of our people, let us trust also in each other and to our Good God by whose infinitely wise Providence the authority of those incorruptible seals of those particular sovereign offices are ultimately derived.

The offices, executive, legislative and juridical, under whose seals our government may legally govern us, the people - by our own electoral mandate, therefore, through our own responsibility as well - under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God, may we never, ever forget, are vital lineages of rightful continuation of the necessary governance that have been dutifully commissioned and required ad infinitum - from eternity - by the people, for the people, of the people to serve and defend the ideal of the common good of the common citizenry under the unitive, sheltering wings of the peace of our one faithful Republic. There is always, always a certain sense of shame and dishonor in disobedience. It might be high time to accept the fact that we are all in this together, that God is our first defender, and that we will live and die by the strength of our resolve to endure with our hopes, this longest night of our poor world.

Do we want to be devoured by the beast of war? Do we want our posterity to inherit the desolation of war? Where is our faith in God and in each other as a people? Then, let us each do our duty, from the least to the greatest, knowing that we shall rise and fall as one people and one nation by the strength of our peace. Who else but us, my fellow Filipinos, who else but us. Who else but us can carry in our hearts the cherished remebrances of our heroes, our loved ones and our friends? Who else can ever love this one Filipino Republic the way we can? Have we ever really tried? Shall the citizens of foreign lands ever truly appreciate what great promise we have in Country, in a free Republic state we have uniquely merited from the Providence of God by much bloodshed sacrifice, sweat and the shedding of tears? Who else but us! For the peace of every nation is built like the pyramids of old. It can never be built from the top down. Our peace can not be transmitted from our leaders, it can only be enforced from the top down. Because for peace to really take root in our homeland, it must first begin to grow in the fertile ground of our hearts, as Christians and as common Filipinos, united to our Muslim brothers and sisters, as one nation together.

Verily, my precious friend, peace begins within the soul of individual citizens like us. If enough souls make an absolute choice to earnestly pursue the ascendant way of the One Peace in common - or the unitive Light of Christ, our Eternal Daystar in particular; if enough of a foundation is built from the web of relationships we have collectively made a conscious effort to touch with the reality of our One Peace with Jesus Christ and with each other, then the slow transformation of our entire society become possible as peace is transmitted from the fertile ground of our own hearts as individuals, gaining momentum as it ascends from the level of the self into the level of our families, from our families into our barangays, from our barangays into our towns and cities, from our town and cities into our provinces and regions, and from our provinces and regions into our poor nation, from our nation into the one family of the nations of suffering mankind so that everything noble, good and true as peace that serve life ascends in praises of unity and fraternal sibling hood to the great glory of the one God of life and truth.

If war forever reigns, then why are we Christians celebrating Easter today?

Pax Pilipinas, Mabuhay!

"Peace is a promise.
A promise I make to you,
My precious child.
A promise to see you through
right to the bitter end."

A happy and meaningful Easter 2008 to all of blessed Christendom.

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to all men of good will.