In search of a righteous and just reign

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

“In search of a righteous and just reign: O Manila, Manila, Killing the Prophets and Stoning Those Who are Sent to You!” article by Rex Reyes, Jr., NCCP

Poverty and misery have faces in the Philippines. One poster with an emaciated teener says it all: “Madame President, you said prosperity for all. All I have known is poverty!” Many times, we often wonder whether our efforts as church people actively involved in the movement for genuine change is worth it. What can be done in a situation where the poor and the struggling jeepney driver, who totally subscribes to the movement for social change, can hardly join any mobilization or demonstration because he is busy trying to survive?

Yet, today in the Philippines is the unstoppable movement of people towards genuine and lasting peace. Equally beyond doubt is the participation of Christians in this movement. This is so as the Arroyo government tries to parry off charges of scandal after scandal, (the latest being the P728-million fertilizer scandal) thru repressive means, (the latest being Presidential Proclamation 1017). In the former, the Senate report laid the blame directly on the President. “The fertilizer fund was misused. It was corrupted. It was intended to assure her (Arroyo) victory (in the elections). But by shielding officials directly responsible for squandering taxpayer’s money (thru Executive Order 464 that bars officials from attending Senate hearings without the approval of the President) and failing to disprove the charges, the President only confirmed her culpability and involvement in this unforgivable act”. (PDI, Mar 4 Editorial). Of the latter, a retired justice of the Supreme Court lamented: “Whoever advised President Macapagal-Arroyo to issue her proclamation must have unwittingly committed a monumental blunder or wickedly persuaded her to slit her political throat. . . . Her declaration of a state of national emergency was null and void, at best only her own factual self-assessment without legal or binding effect. Even if disputably correct, it does not confer on her additional sanctions to those available to her under present law.”

Under such context of corruption in high places and poverty among the greater mass, the churches in the Philippines are now rising to the occasion. At one recent meeting where President Arroyo sent emissaries to the NCCP, the Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines and currently the NCCP Chairperson sternly told the emissaries: “We are not enemies of the state! We are doing our best to serve the people! You, in government, are the ones not doing your jobs!” The National Council of Churches in the Philippines is widely known to have consistently taken on a prophetic stand. This is anchored on the understanding that the ecumenical movement is a people’s movement. Thus, the church has to be in tandem with the people in the pilgrimage for genuine independence, and peace with justice. The task of sustaining and creating greater sensitivity to the plight of the oppressed and the poor remain to be NCCP’s agenda. Undeniably, the NCCP is so identified with the people’s movement, such that it has been misunderstood and labeled with names, even by some of its former overseas partners. But the ecumenical movement in the Philippines has not shirked. We now see a growing number of women, men and youth participating in discussion groups and swelling the ranks of those who swarm the streets when it is time to air our grievances again.

Churches in the Philippines also view this prophetic task as pro-people. The movement for peaceful communities necessarily takes on the basic concerns that make life what it should be – water, health, work, and the longing to be free from oppression and the demonic, seen in its broadest sense – genuine freedom and sovereignty. This sounds familiar to the indigenous people who continue to wage struggle to protect their right to self-determination. It means matching Christian piety with special attention to the least, the little ones. As a concrete measure, the churches promote community integration or what we like to call community immersion among their constituents and overseas partners. The NCCP General Secretary argues strongly that ecumenism is discovering together what Jesus Christ lived and died for. “Our ten member churches and ten service-oriented associate members perceive Jesus Christ as an ‘irruption of justice, truth, love and power in the midst of injustice, oppression and hypocrisy’. And if we actually immerse ourselves in that situation, we will discover that we are not the only ones involved in the work of transformation. There are people and groups in the whole inhabited earth who are much more deeply involved than most Christians. This sobering fact leads the Christians to internalize the reality that God’s action for justice and liberation is not restricted to groups of people who declare their faith in the lordship of Jesus Christ.”

The starting point is dialogue where commonalities in life situations and aspirations are discovered, where commonalities point to a common enemy. Again, the NCCP General Secretary asserts: “(Dialogue) can happen only when we immerse ourselves in the lives of those whom we are in solidarity with. Jesus’ life was a demonstration of that praxis. He constantly engaged people in dialogue and met them at the point of their deepest need. One of his temptations was to jump from the pinnacle of the temple in the daring feat to make people believe in and follow him. He rejected this method because he believed that he had to enter the world of the people whom he came to liberate. He did not want immunity from pain and suffering. In essence, he was saying: How will I know what I should do unless I am aware of their situation? Ecumenism means entering people’s lives and letting them tell us what our Christian business is.

That prophetic stand is likewise understood as enduring. Many have died or were killed. Others have given up or abandoned all hope. This endurance stems from a constant reading of our history, drawing from it lessons for our time and a conscientious and persistent discernment of the present. It also stems from Paul’s perspective – that after all, “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). In its endurance is its renewal. How often have we been told to bear our burdens quietly and without complaint for after all our reward will be heaven? The calling to renew the face of the earth cannot be left alone entirely in the hands of politicians. Nor should it make room for a ghetto of sycophants or passive Christians. In the churches in recent years and up until today, discussions have been undertaken to veer away from being a “maintenance church”. Some have discovered that a way out of this stigma is to take on the mission of empowerment of the marginalized sectors of our society in addition to the traditional means by which the churches engaged in mission through the years. The experience leads to the desire to breathe the air of freedom and do new things or do the same thing in a different way. Thus, it becomes a march, literally and figuratively, that will shake the foundations of those principalities and powers and rulers of this present darkness.

Finally this prophetic stand recognizes that the people’s movement is a march that literally shakes the foundations of those principalities and powers and rulers of the present darkness. It has not been easy, especially in recent days where the ruler has become severely paranoid of the citizens, and who describes prophets as anarchists, communists, terrorists, de-stabilizers, who need to be arrested, jailed or neutralized for “disrupting me in my economic agenda”. To the Filipino churchworker at this time where Arroyo’s presidency is shaky while she turns ruthless Barth’s reminder has been helpful: “So radical are the claims of the Gospel, so sweeping are its demands on the faithful, so uncompromising does it render those who yield themselves fully to it. . .Because of its revolutionary nature, its uncompromising character and its claim on the allegiance of all people, Christianity is more to be feared by the established order than any other else.”

REX RB REYES, JR.
Program Secretary
Christian Unity and Ecumenical Relations
National Council of Churches in the Philippines