By Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-,40 NIV,
The month of October by virtue of Higher Education Act of 1994 and Presidential Proclamation No. 1906 is declared as the National Indigenous Peoples Month. The two laws are in recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous cultural communities also known as the indigenous people. The observance places a spotlight to the indigenous peoples (IP) in the continuing struggle for their rights, their ancestral domains, and their autonomy. According to one government website, ‘many of the 110 ethno-linguistic indigenous cultural groups in the Philippines experience discrimination, degradation of resource bases, and armed conflict. IP communities, generally located in distinct ancestral territories, have high rates of unemployment, underemployment, and illiteracy’. While these are highlighted in this month’s celebration, tension sparked on Wednesday between the Katutubong Palawan an indigenous group and guards of Ipilan Nickel Corporation located in Brooke’s Point, Palawan. The IP group, LGU and some residents are against the mining operation, because according to the report, the area covered by the mining operation including Mount Matalingahan has been declared as Ancestral Domain and protected areas. According to the mining company spokesperson the mining project is a partnership with the national government. The authorities believe that the national government should intervene to properly and legally address the issue.
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On Thursday, representatives from the member churches of the Regional Ecumenical Council in the Cordillera (RECCORD) and the Baguio City Ecumenical Council (BCEC) gathered in celebration of the IP Month, at the Easter College Gym. The activity centered on the theme, “Being Called to Witness: Journeying with Indigenous Peoples in defense of land, life, rights and resources.” Friends from civil society groups, the youth sector, and the school community joined in the celebration.
The Rt. Rev. Rex Reyes, Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines (EDCP), was the preacher in that ecumenical celebration. The songs, prayers, dances, and messages called for the continuing solidarity with the indigenous peoples in their struggles for land, life, rights and resources. The fifth mark of mission of the Anglican Communion embraces this kind of witness, “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” It is also a concrete response to the great commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
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In the earlier verses of our Gospel lesson this Sunday in Matthew 22, some Pharisees and Sadducees and other people of evil scheme came to Jesus and force him to a debate to trap him. The topics included paying taxes and about the resurrection. One of the teachers of the law noticed how Jesus answered well and asked him another question to entrap him, “Of all the commandments, which is the greatest?” And Jesus answered in the above verses which are a quotation from the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus which is known to the Jews as the Shema, their faith confession. It is a confession about love of God and neighbor. To the present-day Christians, it is known as the ‘Greatest Commandment’. We cannot obey one unless we also keep the other. If we disobey one, we break them both. If we do not love God, our supposed love of neighbor is only a form of self-love. If we do not love our neighbor, the love we claim to have for God is only empty emotion. Loving God inspires love of neighbor; love of neighbor incarnates love of God. This is what being the body of Christ means. We carry the Jesus Words into the world each day as we go about our various businesses. In our primary arena of ministry, our family, we are patient with and respectful of one another because that is how we share the love we have received. In our various works – as employees or employers – we act with integrity and consistency, demonstrating how God loves us. In our society, we cast our lots to the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized thinking the words of our Lord comes judgment day, “for I was hungry, and you did not give me food, I was naked and did not clothe me, was in prison and did not visit me.”
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We also do these things because God first loved us. We love not by our own reason or strength but through the power of God’s love. First, God created us out of love. When we turned away from our creator, God loved us so much that He gave Jesus to die and rise again from the dead, conquering the powers of sin and death that we might enjoy eternal life. Now God’s Spirit calls and nurtures us through the Word, through water, bread and wine, and through other believers in Christ. Through this Spirit, we continue to experience God’s love, and we respond to that love by loving our neighbor. The circle is closed! The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by making God’s love complicated. But Jesus saw through their scheme and laid before them and us the simple truth: loving God results in loving our neighbor, loving our neighbor is how we show we love God.
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The gospel lesson is asking us today to have a good look at those shadowy nooks and crannies of our lives which are sealed off from God. To profess that we love God while remaining indifferent to the plight of others is a contradiction. We all want love to be thornless rose, smooth velvet to the touch but if we are following Christ, we will find that it involves sacrifice and the shadow of the cross. Love is waiting upon the aged, nursing the sick, patching up quarrels and taking some time to listen to the broken-hearted. ‘Very few expect to discover love in weakness, powerlessness and suffering and yet that is the heart of Jesus Christ’s message to the world. From his birth in a stable as one who was homeless, to the death on the cross as common criminal, Jesus always identified with the spiritually, physically and materially poor of this world. This gospel is not an ideal to be admitted but a way of life to be lived if we are to walk humbly with our God. There is a an old saying that the night is over, and the day has begun when we recognize other people as our brothers and sisters.’ (Desmond Knowles)
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Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect, Proper 25, BCP).**
