TANDAG, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews / 30 December) — After a gruelling experience of the misa de gallo and the opening Christmas season, I went on an adventure trip with my family into an unknown route from Surigao del Sur to Bukidnon via the Las Nieves-Calabugao road traversing the Pantaron range. The view was breathtaking but the unpaved part of the road was nerve-wracking. The rain was on and off but the atmosphere was chilly. We were sure about the route but not about the road. Our awe was mixed with sighs and prayers. At a certain point, we relied on God and immensely thanked Him after our safe arrival. This trip became our family tradition, once a coping mechanism for the loss of our mother, now something we look forward to as a way of bonding.
The first Sunday after Christmas in the Catholic Christendom is always a solemn celebration of the Holy Family feast or Sagrada Familia. It is so because as we contemplate the mystery of God becoming man, so also we wonder and dwell on the mystery of how God entered into our timeline through a family. The birth of the Savior then elevated every family on earth into a dignity, worthy of divine initiative. The Holy Family composed of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary became a seedbed of love from an interrelationship that is a Trinity. Each person exemplified obedience to the Father in heaven. The Holy Family became an exemplary model then for every Catholic family. Here in our country, the Catechism for Filipino Catholics profiled that a typical Filipino faithful is family-oriented. Hence, many successful Filipinos attributed their success to their family.
On the other hand, there is something more that we need to look into the Holy Family of Nazareth and the real situation of Filipino families today. We should refrain from putting the Sagrada Familia at the pedestal always. We know how poor they were. From the very start, they were under threat, then dislocated to Egypt. Upon returning, they preferred to settle into a lesser known village, an origin often discriminated. They obliged the yearly pilgrimage in Jerusalem. Their lives perhaps were not far from the lives of the common Filipino families today, 22% of whom suffer hunger, 50% consider themselves poor, 64% of them can’t afford a 10k hospital bill. Hence, they are vulnerable to manipulation during elections.
While this Catholic nation has prided herself with family-oriented values, the country is besieged with family-related social issues: corruption, dynasties, and nepotism. These three or more are quite interrelated. At its core is the wrong assumption that love for one’s own family is absolute. The Holy Family of Nazareth never said so. They never considered themselves as the center of attention, nor intoxicate themselves with privileges and entitlements. What made them holy is their deep obedience to God who called each of them to play a particular role for our salvation.
Loving one’s family therefore is not an end in itself. Rather it is a means to love the greater family of God. Hence, the late Fr. Ruben Tanseco, SJ former director of the Center for Family Ministries, always insisted in our class that the goal of every family is to become a family-for-others. Unfortunately, many Filipino Catholics miss the very point of loving one’s family. The mishap affects mostly the people in the margins: the government services become illusive to them when they are far from relation to these families in power; they don’t have a chance to an elective office as it is inherited by any member of a family in power; they bear the ugly brunt of corruption, etc.
When the celebration of Christmas is followed by a feast of the Holy Family, the order of the event is irreversible: one’s family cannot be holy without Christ being born in their midst. And the opposite is even louder: a family that continually caters only to their own is devoid of the awesome presence of the Savior. But then again, just like the Holy Family of Nazareth, every Filipino family journeys toward the realization that real love for one’s family doesn’t stop on their own but real love for the suffering humanity.
It is stubbornly unfortunate that many political dynasties think otherwise. As they exorbitantly flourish, many poor families perish. But as long as God walked with the Holy Family 2000 years ago, there is great hope that the families who are suffering today may soon experience the emancipating presence of God. In the meantime, it is the task of the people of faith to wrestle with the families that contradict the very calling entrusted to them.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews Fr. Raymond Montero Ambray heads the Integral Ecology Ministry, LGBTQ+ Apostolate, Church Heritage and Historical Commission of the Diocese of Tandag. He finished Theology at the Don Bosco Center of Studies and is a graduate of MA Anthropology at the Ateneo de Davao University, a member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and a founding member of Caraga Watch, an environmental watchdog. He is part of the Board of Consultors of the Bishop of Tandag. This reflection was first published on his FB page. MindaNews was granted permission to publish this)
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