"GOD himself refuses to give up on us"

In a homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Ramon Bautista, SJ during the morning Mass of December 25, 2004, he started it, by mentioning cases as follows:

Last December 2, seven persons (5 men and 2 women) ages ranging from 20 to 34 were found dead inside a car, parked on a deserted mountain road near Tokyo.

Last November 28, four men were found dead inside an apartment in Tokyo.

Last October 12, nine persons were found dead in two parked cars again outside the vicinity of Tokyo.

All three cases of death have to do with this new phenomenon hitting Japan today. It is called “Cyber-Suicide” because the persons involved meet through the internet and after meeting through the internet they share to one another their desire to kill themselves. After sharing this desire of theirs, to kill themselves they actually plan in detail how they would want to carry it out . In doing so they even make a pact ( a sacred agreement) promising to meet at a particular place and at a particular time. And when the time comes the persons involved just meet at the exact place agreed upon. And in the end they just do it. They just carry it out (actually) killing themselves in the manner and the style that they had planned it. Thus from being mere total strangers they become most united , most bonded in this experience called death. It is said that more than 32,000 Japanese killed themselves last year. However, what is the most significant to note here is that this number of people killing themselves is increasing. Why? Because this phenomenon of cyber-suicide is rapidly increasing.

My dear friends all of us get discouraged once in awhile, all of us even get depressed in one way or another once in a while. But to get discouraged, to feel depressed to the point of wanting to kill ourselves is to reach our lowest point.. our lowest point as human persons in terms of giving up our life, in terms of giving up on ourselves. Thus as human person, we can never get lower than these. Indeed, committing suicide, taking our very lives in the clearest and most radical expression for us in terms of giving up on our world, giving up on ourselves. And that is why I believe we need a season like Christmas. What is this season of Christmas all about? The season of Christmas as we all know is a season of hope, a season of trust, a season of life. Father Horacio dela Costa, SJ, our first Filipino Provincial once said, Christmas is not so much we trusting and we hoping in God. It’s the other way around, Christmas is God deciding to trust and to hope in us no matter what. That’s what we celebrate Christmas today. We should know what to stress on, is not so much our hope, not so much our trust. In God it is the other way around. It’s God deciding to continue to trust in us to hope in us. Our God is a God of hope and in this beautiful God of ours we can hope, there is reason to hope and we see that all the time especially in the Gospels, In the gospel we read, our Lord sometimes getting discouraged with the disciples, with the apostles, a few times He would tell the Apostles. “You men of little faith? Why did you doubt? Why did you falter?” But in the end He never gives up on them. Our God is a God who refuses to give up on us in spite of our sinfulness and our lack of faith. We see this also in the beautiful Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Father is waiting and waiting and waiting. He did not give up over his son. When his son finally came, he embraced and kissed him.

My dear friends, our God is a God who refuses to give up on us in spite of our sinfulness. We can give up on our world, we can give up on ourselves but our God will never give up on us. And I think this is what it means to celebrate Christmas, to celebrate the mystery behind Christmas. And what is the mystery behind Christmas? It is the beautiful mystery of the Incarnation. Karl Rahner, a famous theologian of the last century said, there are three greatest mysteries in Christianity, the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of Grace and the mystery of the Incarnation. For us, the Incarnation is the greatest proof that God simply refuses to give up on us. He could have just sent his messenger, he could have just sent us an angel but no he decided to come down to us. If God himself, the Almighty himself refuses to give up on us how can we give up on ourselves?

Certain names have been coming up; today this name came up again, the name John. We see the story of John the Baptizer, when the people approached Elizabeth and Zechariah, what name would you give this boy? Elizabeth said, John and Zechariah said, John . The people were surprised why not Zechariah , why not Junior or Zechariah Jr., no, his name is John. What does John mean? It means Yahweh is gracious, God is gracious. When I asked my Novices what do you mean by gracious and they answered: Father, “grasioso” and I said “kastila” yon not tagalog. For me when I hear this word gracious it’s “mabait” but when I looked it up in the dictionary it’s “magiliw” Ang Dios ay magiliw. Ang ating Pambansang Awit ay magiliw ,”Bayang Magiliw”. Ang bayan natin ay isang baying magiliw. Ang Pilipino ay magiliw kaya tinawag tayo na Juan dela Cruz. Juan sapagkat ang mga Filipino ay dapat lang mga “grasiosa”, “magiliw” When we say “giliw”, gracious it needs a heart disposed to be healed, a heart that is kind and warm, generous and open , handang magbigay, handang makibahagi, isang pusong bukas palad, in bisaya it’s “mangihatagon”, “kanunay ang hatag” this is one thing that is coming up this day. Another thing is God is with us—nasa atin ang Dios, we posses God and God possessed us. Tayo ay nasa Dios—this is the meaning of the greeting of the Priest every Eucharistic Celebration. Sumasa inyo ang Panginoon at Suma inyo rin. Every time the Priest greets the Congregation, “The Lord be with you” this is the Emmanuel prayer. Sumasa atin ang Dios O nasa atin ang Dios. Again this is reason for us to hope in the God who will never give up on us.