LAST WORDS

It is Holy Week and as I write these words over 3,500 of our sisters and brothers have perished from the March 28th earthquake in Myanmar. Thousands more have been injured. Thousands more are unaccounted for. I cannot imagine the pain of those who have lost loved ones and those whose loved ones are still missing in the aftermath of this disaster. I also cannot imagine the pain of those who have lost loved ones in Gaza. Since the departed fell victim to the evils of genocide, thousands of bodies have yet to be recovered from under the rubble.
This means no wakes, no necrological services, and no goodbyes for the bereaved.
Last words are important to many of us. Especially these days. I am sure that the last text message from a dear doctor or nurse who died in Gaza will be cherished forever. That final phone call from a grandparent in Mandalay. That last Facebook message from a beloved colleague. That last minute video call from a spouse. Last words. Now, all precious. Priceless.
My late mother’s last words to me, when we were in the very cold Emergency Room of the Philippine Heart Center, were: “Anak, mainit, paypayan mo ako (Child, It’s hot, fan me).” My late father’s final text message to me was: “Thank you.” Precious. Priceless.
“Tama na po, may exam pa ako bukas.”
(Please, enough, I have exams tomorrow.)
These were Kian Delos Santos’s last words, before he was murdered, one of the victims of Duterte's War on Drugs which was actually a War on the Poor. Kian's final spoken words, heard by witnesses, helped convict his murderers.
And, of course, the most famous last words ever memorialized would be Jesus’s as found in the gospels. Tradition calls these the “Seven Last Words.” Mark has one. So does Matthew. Luke has three. So does John. If you add those up, they total eight. Since Mark’s and Matthew’s versions are almost the same, tradition calls both “The Fourth Word.”
Most of us have heard homily after homily every Good Friday year after year on these utterances. Precious and priceless. But let us never forget: these last words from the cross are actually last words of someone who fell victim to an extra-judicial killing. Arrested at night. Murdered by state authorities.
Like Kian.
TO BE CONTINUED.

*Photo from Rappler

 

WITH 5,000 AND ONE

 

In Graduate School I had the rare privilege of attending meetings of the Jesus Seminar. During one meeting in New Orleans, I asked the group, "Why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem?" His Galilee-based, grassroots movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this; they did not want to him to go to Jerusalem, especially Peter. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

John Dominic Crossan volunteered John 7, where Jesus' brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!" NT Wright told me, "You should write a paper on it."

We all know how Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem ends. But I don't think for a moment that Jesus went because of what his brothers said.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to come back to the Philippines in 1892. Andres Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. The scores of medical professionals, journalists, UN workers, and volunteers who went to Gaza to help the Palestinian People did not need to go there. We also know how these stories ended.

Historians tell us that when Jesus entered Jerusalem he did so with over 5000, made up of mostly farmers and fisherfolk...and a donkey's colt. Most of us forget the colt Jesus rode on as he entered the city. (We are so used to people-centric, actually male-centric, readings of the Bible.)**

Pontius Pilate also entered the city from the opposite direction with a Roman Legion. (That is 6,000 armed soldiers, including 300 cavalry!).

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. Jesus did not need to cleanse the Temple with a whip. But he did anyway. Mark reports that every single day the authorities tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the masses who protected him. So, they arrested him at night, with a Roman Cohort. (That is one battalion!)

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. But he did so anyway. He had a mission from God. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!

How about us? Do we have the faith and the heart to accomplish the mission God is calling us to do?


*Art, "Entry into the City" by John August Swanson (available from the vanderbilt divinity library digital art collection).
**We also forget the Good Samaritan's donkey.

THE SHORT INTRODUCTION TO "THE SHORTEST SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE SERIES"

 

There are people who pretend to read the Bible.
They will proudly say they read their Bibles and pray every day--but in reality, they've only memorized Genesis 1:1, Psalm 23, and John 3:16.

There are people who study the Bible who actually don't read it because they are required to read voluminous books about the Bible. They have encyclopedic knowledge about the history of Biblical translations, the structure of the Roman Empire during Jesus' time, and the mythology of various angels and beasts mentioned in Revelation--but they've never opened the Bible itself.

There are people who want to read the Bible but are told to read introductions to the Bible that are longer than the Bible. By the time they finish reading those intros, they often feel like not reading the Bible anymore--or never reading again for the rest of their lives, even.

For people who want to start reading the Bible but who want to have a helpful introduction, here's your answer. Prof. Revelation Velunta has written The Shortest Short Introduction to the Bible Collection. Each volume is so short, you can start reading the Bible after a few minutes.

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Ian Yeshua Aoanan Velunta

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IN MEMORY OF HER

Mark and Matthew also have versions of Sunday's Gospel from John. In Matthew's and Mark's narratives, the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume is unnamed. Jesus tells his disciples to remember what she did in memory of her. John's Gospel does exactly that: the woman who anoints Jesus is named. She is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

A reading of the canonical gospels focused on his followers would show that--more often than not--they cannot understand what Jesus does and what he says. Over and over Jesus has to explain his words and his actions.

Over and over Jesus tells them about his suffering and his resurrection--and they misunderstand and disbelieve him. All four gospels end with women coming to the tomb to anoint a dead body! No one among Jesus’s twelve male disciples believed that he will rise again.

But one woman in the whole narrative does believe: the unnamed woman in Mark and Matthew; Mary of Bethany in John. She anoints Jesus for burial because there would be no body to anoint later. There would only be an empty tomb—as the named women disciples led by Magdalene discover when they came Easter morning with their anointing oils.

Friends don't forget this, ever: only one person believed that Jesus will be raised up: a woman.

And she was right!

Art, "Jesus speaks about forgiveness", JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (available online at the vanderbilt divinity library art galleries).
 

REVELATION ON REVELATION

 

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THE LOST BOYS

Luke 15 has three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of these parables. The sheep, the coin, the son all represent the sinner who is lost then found and saved by God.

My friends, let us try to read the parables as parables about shepherds and sheep, women and coins, and fathers and sons. The shepherd is not God. Nor the woman. Nor the father.

The shepherd is responsible for sheep under her care. The woman is responsible for her coins. The father is responsible for his sons.

If sheep, coins, and sons go astray, we ask those responsible: why?

For so long our interpretations have shielded and protected those responsible for sheep, coins, and sons. It is time we ask the shepherd, the woman, and the father: why did you lose them?

For so long we have shielded and protected David and Eli from what happened with their "lost" sons. We still do so with today's Davids and Elis.

*Art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA, Cameroon, 1970 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library revised common lectionary art galleries).

https://a.co/d/7BlGW4z
 

THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE

 

For three years the owner of the Fig tree has waited. For three years he was patient. For three years he longed for one thing, fruit from his tree. Three years pass and there were none. So, he orders his gardener to chop it down. Waste of good soil. His gardener pleads, "Give it another year. I will dig around it and put manure." Give it another year.

We call them people with "green thumbs." People who love plants. People who sing and talk to them like they were people. People like the gardener who pleads, "Give it another year." People who celebrate the inter-connectedness of all life. People who believe in second chances for everyone and everything. People who know the magic properties of manure.

Then there are people who treat everyone and everything as property, as commodity, as disposable, as opportunities for extraction and exploration. And every single day they acquire square kilometers of prime agricultural land, ancestral domain, and public lands for profit.

There's a term for this insatiable greed: development aggression.

And everything and everyone in the way--everything that does not produce profit--is chopped down; is told, "May no one ever eat fruit from you ever!" Not just Fig trees.

*Art, "Children eating Figs" (M365 copilot generated image). https://a.co/d/6IdSfim

THE PARABLE OF THE WIDOW AND THE UNJUST JUDGE

Homilies on this parable tell us that if we persist, like the widow, in prayer, pleading to God, then God, like the judge, will relent.

Stop imagining that the judge in the story is God. He is not. He is a judge that did not fear God nor respect people. Jesus describes him as an unjust judge. He is like so many in the world's justice systems that serve the powerful, the propertied, and the privileged. (There are exceptions, of course, like the ICC and the ICJ.)

And then there's the widow. Widows are among the three most dispossessed people in the Bible (along with orphans and refugees), fighting for justice like so many in our country today: the thousands of widows caused by Duterte's anti-poor War on Drugs.

Tens of thousands of widows brought about by militarization, by large-scale mining, by human trafficking, by the US-led War on Terror, by powers and principalities fueled by insatiable greed and lust for profit. All crying out, all relentless, all persistent in their quest for justice.

And the unjust judge relents. Not because he had a change of heart. Nakulitan lang siya. The situation changed because the widow never gave up. Morning, noon, and night. Rain or shine. She was in his face. Standing her ground. She never lost hope. She fought for justice and justice prevails at the end. Then and now, widows who fight for justice never give up.

Dear Friends, justice always prevails. This is why we should always choose justice. And always stand with widows and orphans and those whose only hope is God.

*Art, "Persistent Widow" from FreeBibleImagesdotorg.

https://a.co/d/0pXQ2pz
 

HENS AND FOXES

 

Close your eyes. Imagine Jesus.

Is he handsome? With piercing blue eyes? With shoulder length blond hair? White? This is Trump's Jesus.

In Sunday's Gospel Reading, the most definitely nondescript, most probably brown-eyed, and Galilean Jesus compares himself to a hen, and calls Herod a fox. Now, this hen is calling us to follow him. This hen is also calling the rich--which includes Trump, Musk, Bezos, and their ilk--to sell everything they have, to give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow him.

Now, this hen is a prophet, like John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, Huldah, Anna, Amos, and Miriam, who speaks for God: The God who always takes the side of orphans, widows, and refugees.

Foxes want hens dead. Then and now. Herod wanted to kill Jesus. But this particular hen was not afraid of this particular fox. He had a mission to complete. And it was waiting for completion in Jerusalem.

Close your eyes again. Imagine Jesus. Not your Personal Lord and Savior. Nor Trump's.

But Jesus, the Prophet: Jesus who is risen among today's hens--mothers, sisters, daughters, relatives, and allies--fighting for justice for their kin extra-judicially killed in the War on Drugs; Jesus who is one hen among many hens--undeterred by death threats from foxes--rising up and "gathering their brood under their wings."


*There are hens who do not fear foxes. MS365 copilot generated image.

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FORTY DAYS WITH SATAN

 

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke is also found in Mark and Matthew. The Spirit drives or throws Jesus into the wilderness in Mark. In Luke and Matthew, the Spirit leads Jesus. Being thrown and being led are very different descriptions. The former conjures an image of Jesus going with hesitation, even resistance. The latter paints a picture of readiness and willingness.

Wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. Hagar and Ishmael encounter God in the wilderness. God appeared to Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Ancient Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for decades. Many of them died there, including Moses. John the Baptist was a "voice of one calling in the wilderness." The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place. Yet, God's surprises abound in the wilderness!

And then there is the number 40, a long time in scripture. It rained 40 days and nights during the time of Noah. Forty years separated the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan River. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested. Matthew and Luke add that he fasted. This narrative is the basis for the 40 days of Lent.

We imagine that Jesus was alone in the wilderness during those 40 days of testing. He was not. The Synoptics tell us Jesus had company. Wild beasts. Angels. And Satan! God's surprises do abound in the wilderness!

My friends, let us never forget: Satan did not betray Jesus. Judas did. Satan did not deny Jesus. Peter did. Satan did not plot to arrest and kill Jesus in secret. The chief priests and scribes did. Satan did not abduct, torture, abuse, and murder Jesus. The Romans did.

Satan is not behind the War on Terror and the War on the Poor. Satan is not responsible for economic systems and structures that privilege profit over people and planet. Nor is Satan responsible for the genocide in Gaza. We all know who are responsible and should be held accountable for all these.

Lent began yesterday, Ash Wednesday. Students of "Redeemer/Champion Myths" know that heroes/heroines undergo testing and trial to help prepare them for their mission. Who among us wants to spend 40 days in the wilderness being tested by Satan? Jesus went. Took the test. And he passed.


*Microsoft 365 copilot generated image of Jesus and Satan in the wilderness.

METAMORPHOSIS

For many pop culture enthusiasts, the most popular example of a metamorphosis would be Dr. Bruce Banner's transformation into the Hulk. For the rest of the world, our introduction to the term came via one of our earliest science lessons in grade school: observing and documenting the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

These days students observe caterpillars in school AND train Caterpie in Pokémon!

Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke is about metamorphosis, although most English Bibles use "transfiguration."

If we read our Bibles and pray every day, then we know that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all experience mountain-top encounters with God. All three went through very trying and challenging times in their lives and their encounter with God enabled them to complete the tasks that God has called them to do. The three went up caterpillars, they came down butterflies.

Metamorphosis.

But not everyone who encounters God come back as butterflies--like Peter. In the mountain Peter experienced something so special, so unique that we expected him to come out as a butterfly, yet he does not.

He opposes Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. He denies Jesus. Three times! He attempts to cancel his metamorphosis.

Have you ever seen caterpillars stop the "magic" that turns them into butterflies?

Everyone who encounters God in God’s Mountain needs to come down. When Moses came down, he led in the birthing of a people whose love for Yahweh was expressed in love for neighbor, especially the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the strangers. When Elijah came down he continued the struggle against Israel’s oppressive kings and began a prophetic tradition that ended with John the Baptizer. When Jesus came down he followed the path that led to Jerusalem and eventually to the cross.

All butterflies begin as caterpillars.

To believe in God's "magic" to effect metamorphosis is to believe that goodness will always triumph over evil, that hope is stronger than despair, that faith conquers fear, that love is greater than indifference, that life will always, always, conquer death! To believe in metamorphosis is to believe in God's power to transform each and every caterpillar into a butterfly.

Yes, in the end, even Peter.

And, yes, even you and me!


*Art is a Microsoft 365 copilot generated image of two children and a butterfly.