BEFORE starting my weekly reflection, allow me to first greet DZRV Radyo Veritas 846 in its 42nd anniversary celebration being held today at the Cuneta Astrodome with His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal B. Rosales as main mass presider together with Rev. Fr. Anton C.T. Pascual, Station President. I likewise thank my elementary school teacher Ms. Femia B. Garcia, Mr. Rodulfo C. Tirol (Principal) and all the faculty member of Padre Zamora Elementary School (Pasay) for their warm welcome during my speaking engagement in their recently held Recognition Ceremonies. Both celebrations have helped enriched my Lenten Season experience.

Speaking of Lent, St. Mark’s account of Jesus’ journey into the desert (cf. Mk 1:12-15) is significant not only for stating that we need to spiritually prepare for forty days as Jesus did but also for the prompting of the spirit, “(that) drove him (Jesus) into the desert.”  For if the desert has been depicted in scriptures as a place where evil reigns then it could be said that the movement of Christ towards it was symbolic of steadfastness to God in the midst of evil.  Similar to the words of Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Similarly, the Season of Lent is based on the ancient church custom of requiring catechumens to undergo a forty-day period of doctrinal instruction and fasting before being baptized on the evening before Easter. This probationary period was called the quarantine (from the Latin word for forty). The number forty occurs frequently in both testaments of the Bible. It signifies the time that is required for discipline, testing, and separation prior to achieving a goal or new beginning.  The liturgical season of Lent initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year. During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- the salvation God won for us sinners by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like Jesus in the desert, Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and to deepen our commitment to a way of life, rooted in our baptism.  In our busy world, Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our day-to-day lives, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we’ve done and failed to do, and to be generous to those in need. But more importantly to allow ourselves to do concrete acts of faith in our social and political lives.

Social and Political indifference and passivity is most often response to the kind of government we have. It has been said that the beauty of our culture is that laughter has become an essential ingredient of our problematic life. However, sometimes we can’t rise above that laughter. Part of our culture is to make a joke out of our government whom we have to live with for the rest of their term.  While it is a way of venting our frustrations so we don’t explode, sometimes our satires and jokes remain as they are -- “a load laugh.”  Finding solutions to our social problem are sometimes caught up in the laughter we fleeting feel at the moment, advancing suggestions are overshadowed by the laughter we momentarily release.

The result... We praise authorities in their presence but gripe at their back, expect too much from them but hardly voice out what we want, hop for a bright future but throw the responsibilities to them.  One more thing, we are a people who are good at criticizing others and ourselves but in view of our social and national problems, hardly to we participate to find remedies on these ills.  Somehow, our imperfections are feeding on ourselves.  The politicians we elect take advantage of the lull we should have actively devoted as electorates during their term in vigilantly assuring that they do the job we elected them to perform.

So let’s ask ourselves… Should we be sovereign only during elections?  Or should we be sovereign all the time? The answer does not lie on a simple blame we throw at the government officials we elect in office but also ourselves as this problem feeds on us as well. We must always be “on our toes” in making sure that they be true to the promises they gave, or face its consequences when they once again seek our votes in the polls.

During the forty days of Lent, let us try to be united to God, whether through a little fasting, a bit more prayer, or effort in showing signs of vigilance towards our government, so that our spiritual preparations during this Blessed Season may also serve as the building blocks for change as we prepare to overcome “the evils in the desert” hampering the way for genuine change in our political landscape.

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