'The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.' Sunday Reflections, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Tacloban City, Philippines after Typhoon Hayan/Yolanda

[Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 12:38-44 (shorter form: 12:41-44) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

[In his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the market-places and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”]

And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Francis with victims of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda

Palo, Leyte, 17 January 2015 

[Wikipedia; photo]

Typhoon Hayan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, made landfall in the country on the night of 7 November 2013. As it passed over the country it killed more than 6,000 and affected 11 million people. I was living in Bacolod City at the time where we got heavy rains and strong winds but it wasn't catastrophic, though it did some damage on the island of Negros where Bacolod City is located.

The Wikipedia entry on the storm gives details of the assistance sent by many countries to the Philippines. However, one is missing: Guinea-Bissau, a small country in west Africa that is less than half the size of Ireland or of Mindanao, with a population of around 2,100,000. It declared its independence of Portugal on 24 September 1973. This was recognised on 10 September 1974. About 11 per cent of the population are Catholics. The country has two dioceses.

An Agenzia Fides report dated 9 December 2013 reads: In the spirit of the liturgical season of Advent, the Bishops of the dioceses in Guinea Bissau and Bafata , His Exc. Mgr. Pedro Zilli and His Exc. Mgr. José Camnate na Bissign have invited all the diocesan communities to a 'Day of fasting and prayer for peace in the world, in Africa and in Guinea-Bissau' to be held on December 13. Further on the report states: In tune with the wave of international solidarity in favor of the Philippines, a nation deeply wounded by Typhoon Haiyan, the Bishops recommend to all parish communities that 'the fruit of fasting has to be destined to the victims of this natural disaster'. Furthermore, the Catholic Church promotes a fundraiser for the Filipino people until Sunday, December 22.

I remember being deeply touched by this report. I sent the link to a local newspaper but it wasn't interested.

Typical Scenery, Guinea-Bissau

[Wikipedia; photo]

This story of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau sending aid to the Philippines is similar to that of the Choctaw people in the USA  who had been dispossessed of their traditional homeland. In 1847 they raised money to help the people of Ireland who were starving because of the failure of the potato crop over a number of years. In 1840 Ireland had a population of about 8,000,000. By 1850 a million had died and another million had emigrated to North America, Britain and other places, man dying on the way. (The population of Ireland kept decreasing through emigration till 1950 and today there are fewer people in the country than there were in 1840.) An enduring bond has lasted between the Choctaw people and the Irish to this day.

Flag of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

[Wikipedia; photo]

On the Sundays in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel have a common theme. I have been praying with these readings during the week and the generosity of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau to the people of the Philippines and that of the Choctaw people to the Irish kept coming to mind. They reminded me of the generosity and faith of the widow who gave the prophet Elijah water to drink and bread to eat even though she had really nothing. They reminded me of the widow giving her two small coins to the Temple treasury in Jerusalem, totally unaware of Who noticed this. Neither widow is given a name. 

I doubt if any of the people in Ireland dying of hunger in the 1840s had ever heard of the Choctaw People of if the latter had ever heard of Ireland until someone told them of the plight of the people there, similar to their own plight. I doubt if the majority of Filipinos know where Guinea-Bissau is or if the people of that country know much about the Philippines. There are no historical links between the two no more than there were between the Choctaws and the Irish in the 1840s, though there are now.

The widow who looked after Elijah in his hunger and thirst and the widow to whom Jesus drew the attention of his followers have been giving to the Church for 2,ooo years. Their generosity continues to be a channel of God's grace to the Church and to the whole world.

The amount given by the two widows seems like nothing. The amount the Choctaw people sent to Ireland and that the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world, sent to the Philippines were minimal compared to that sent by other nations and groups. But it was far greater in that it was sent by people with pure and generous hearts and by people of faith. In the case of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau that faith was their Catholic faith. And every donation given by individual Choctaws and by individual Bissau-Guinean Catholics was a 'widow's mite'.

Calon Lân (A Pure Heart)

While I was praying in one of our small chapels during the week the Welsh hymn above, which I've used here before, kept coming into my mind and I listened to it a number of time from my mobile phone through my hearing aids. Calon is the Welsh for 'heart' and Lân the word for 'pure' or 'clean'. The Welsh have a great choral tradition, largely due to the rise of Methodism in the late 1700s and 1800s. Part of that tradition is that hymns are sung before international rugby matches. The above video was made before a match between Wales and Scotland in 2014.

Calon Lân contains the lines, None but a pure heart can sing, Sing in the day and sing in the night. Further on we find, The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.

I have no doubt that the two widows in this Sunday's readings are singing in the eternal day of heaven, bearing eternal profit because of their virtuous, pure hearts. May each of us pray for a virtuous, pure heart.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Resumed Fifth Sunday After Epiphany 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-10-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17.  Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27.

Reading the Bible

Gerrit Dou [Web Gallery of Art]

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16; Epistle).

'One will be taken and one will be left.' Sunday Reflections, 1st Sunday of Advent, Year A

Aleppo, Syria [Wikipedia]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Matthew 24:37-44 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) 

Jesus said to his disciples:  For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,  and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

One will be taken and one will be left (Matthew 24:40 and 41).

In February 2000 a friend of mine, Daisy, an engineer who teaches at Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro, was travelling home to Ozamiz City for the weekend. This involved a journey of about three or four hours by road to Mukas, Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte, where the bus then went on board a ferry for the 20-minute trip across Panguil Bay to Ozamiz City. While waiting for the bus to take the next ferry from Mukas Daisy got off and bought some crabs, a favourite with Filipinos.

Because of the crabs Daisy went up on the upper deck of the ferry instead of sitting in the bus. Halfway across the bay there was a huge explosion. 37 passengers on the three buses on board were killed and others injured.

Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. We could add, Two women will be travelling together in a bus; one will be taken and one will be left.

On Thursday 21 November 2013 Pope Francis met the Filipino community in Rome in St Peter's Basilica. With them, in the light of the recent calamities in the Philippines, a powerful earthquake in October and Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in November, he asks why these things happen.

Pope Francis doesn't offer any easy answers. He encourages us to ask God 'Why?', like little children, as this will catch the attention of our loving Father.

The ending of the old liturgical year and the beginning of the new both remind us of the importance of being ready whenever the Lord comes. This readiness is essential both for the individual and for the whole Christian community. When Jesus returns will he find that we have built a community where God's justice reigns? At the moment of the death of each of us will be in a right relationship with God? Will we have directed our lives towards him? 

One way to be ready for whatever may come is to go to confession regularly.

Pope Francis with victims of Haiyan/Yolanda

Palo, Leyte, 17 January 2015 [Wikipedia]

The old hymn, O Christ who art the light and day, a translation by R. R. Terry of the original Latin Christe Qui Lux Es Et Dies, in a setting here by English composer William Byrd, is often sung as part of Compline, the Night Prayer of the Church. It is a hymn that recognises the reality of sin but also God's desire to protect us. Though it's not specifically an Advent hymn it recalls the purpose of that blessed season that we are just beginning: to prepare to celebrate the First Coming of Jesus at his birth but also to prepare for his daily coming into our lives and for his Second Coming at the end of time.

Antiphona ad Introitum

Entrance Antiphon   Cf. Psalm 24[25]:1-3

Ad te levávi ánimam meam, Deus meus,

To you, I lift up my soul, O my God.

in te confído, non erubéscam.

In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.

Neque irrídeant me inimíci mei,

Nor let my enemies exult over me;

étenim univérsi qui te exspéctant non confundéntur.

and let none who hope in you be put to shame.

Tacloban, Philippines, destroyed twice before by storms

.

Home destroyed by Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, Tacloban City, Philippines

Philippine historian Ambeth R. Ocampo had a very interesting story in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday, 20 November. Tacloban was destroyed twice before by violent storms, in 1897 and in 1912.

Mr Ocampo quotes from an Australian newspaper, Barrier Mariner, 12 January 1898 [emphasis added]:

TYPHOON AND TIDAL WAVE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 7,000 Lives Lost. Mail advices, brought by the steamer Gaelic from Chinese and other ports in the Far East, contain details of the fearful destruction wrought in the Philippine Islands by the typhoon and tidal wave during October [1897]. It is estimated that 400 Europeans and 6,000 natives lost their lives, many being drowned by the rush of water, while others were killed by the violence of the wind. Several towns have been swept or blown away. The hurricane first struck the Bay of Santa Paula, and devastated the district lying to the south of it. No communication with the neighborhood was possible for two days. The hurricane reached Leyte on Oct. 12, striking Tacloban, the capital, with terrific force, and reduced it to ruins in less than half an hour. The bodies of 126 Europeans have been recovered from the fallen buildings. Four hundred natives were buried in the ruins. 

Tacloban City, 14 November 2013

The Washington Herald of 20 November 1912 reports: 

15,000 DIE IN PHILIPPINE STORM. That 15,000 persons were probably killed and wounded in a typhoon that swept the Philippine Islands last Tuesday was reported yesterday in cable dispatches to the Bureau of Insular Affairs.

The typhoon swept the Visayas and is said to have practically destroyed Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, and to have wrought enormous damage and loss of life at Capiz, the capital of the province of Capiz. Tacloban has a population of 12,000. Capiz has a population of over 20,000. Capiz is the terminal of the railroad from Iloilo. It is a most important sugar port.

The first news of the catastrophe came in a dispatch of the governor general of the Philippines. No figures of the dead or injured were given, but it was stated that probably half the population of the two cities had been lost. The governor general sent his dispatch on Thursday. He informed the department that he was rushing a shipload of food, clothing and all available medical supplies to Tacloban. All telegraphic communication has been destroyed, and it is impossible to get other than vague reports of the extent of the disaster. That Tacloban has suffered an enormous loss of life is believed to be certain. Following the receipt of the dispatch announcing the heavy casualties in the Visayas, the Red Cross prepared to rush a relief fund to the governor general. The Washington office has cabled the insular government asking how great is their need.

The town of Capiz referred to is now Roxas City. It now has a population of more than 156,000 while before Haiyan/Yolanda Tacloban City had a population of around 220,000. During the 1912 typhoon they had around 20,000 and 12,000 respectively. This suggests that relative to the population the typhoon 101 years ago was more devastating than Haiyan/Yolanda was. But the reports also imply that twice before Tacloban and other towns rose from post-typhoon ruin.

One of the ironies of Haiyan/Yolanda is that just as in 1912 All telegraphic communication has been destroyed and yet the world's media were able to show us live what was happening in Tacloban City and elsewhere this time.

Mr Ocampo ends his column with this statement: All of the above suggest we do not learn from history.

His statement also suggests to me that while we have to try to analyze climatic events and calamities to see if climate change and global warming are a major factor in storms such as Haiyan/Yolanda and to ask if we humans are responsible for this, we also have to ask other questions.

Haiyan/Yolanda approaching the Philippines, 7 November 2013.

Photos from Wikipedia page on Typhoon Haiyan.

'We may have ratified our own doom.' Aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in Tacloban City, Philippines

The photos above were uploaded on October 30 on her Facebook account by my friend Rhea Gladys Mae Sarigumba, a social worker who lives in Tacloban City. She is with one of her two daughters in the top right while her mother Mrs Vicenta Matildo is in the photo below with her to granddaughters, the children of Rhea and her husband Rogel who is pictured in the top right with his two daughters, his mother-in-law Vicenta and sister-in-law Lalai with her daughter Barbie.

Rhea with her husband Rogel and their daughters whose nicknames are 'Xycy' and 'Xie Ann'.

I've had no news about Rhea since Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda hit Tacloban City early on Friday morning, 8 November. One of the last entries by Rhea on the timeline of her Facebook is a link to an update on the approaching storm on the website of PAGASA, the national weather bureau in the Philippines issued at 6AM on 7 November, less than 24 hours before it hit the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Eastern Visayas. ('PAGASA' is an acronym but in the Visayan languages, spoken in the hardest-hit areas, it means 'hope'.)

Rhea's very last entry on Facebook, dated 7 November, was How can I sleep when 

all I hear is raindrops.. #kanta lang teh? (Just sing?)

Vicenta, Rhea's mother left Surigao del Norte in Mindanao, where she lives, for Tacloban City on Sunday but I haven't heard from her since. However,  a mutual friend and neighbour of Vicenta texted me this morning that Vicenta's mother and her sisters are all safe as they had evacuated before the storm hit.

This afternoon I received a text message from another Rhea, Sr Rhea Lei Tolibas TC, a young religious of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family who is based in the novitiate of the Sisters just north of Bacolod City. She's from Tanauan, Leyte, seen at the beginning of the video above, a coastal town about 45 minutes south of Tacloban City. Her family are safe and in an evacuation centre but lack food and water. Sr Rhea mentioned that people are desperate. 

BBC World reported this afternoon, Wednesday, that eight people had been killed while a crowd stormed a storehouse looking for food.

Church of the Assumption, Tanauan, Leyte [Wikipedia]

The website of the Mercy International Association carries this report of damage to the hospital and school of the Mercy Sisters in Tacloban:

As a human tragedy, the scale of the disaster is so enormous that it is almost beyond our comprehension. What makes this tragedy especially compelling for us is that our own Sisters are significantly effected. The new Mother of Mercy hospital at Tacloban is 50% damaged, the Holy Infant school and college 75% damaged, the Convent in Mindanao badly damaged and the food supplies have run out. It is,of course, impossible to make direct contact with our Sisters, but our understanding is that no Sister is hurt, thank God. However, news has filtered through that some of our Sisters' families are harmed or missing. In the midst of this disaster, these Sisters of Mercy continue to bring human and spiritual comfort and support to all in such drastic need around them.

Six Irish Mercy Sisters from St Maries of the Isle, Cork, went to Tacloban in 1954 at the invitation of Bishop Lino Gonzaga of Palo. That original group grew into a new congregation of Mercy Sisters that now has 47 members, all Filipinos, working in a number of areas. Education and medical care have always been central to Mercy Sisters. Mother of Mercy Hospital, Tacloban City, was one expression of that. 

The six Irish Sisters were asked to take over the running of an already established school that has grown into Holy Infant College (HIC). Ironically, the thene for the 87th anniversary of the establishment of the school was Responding to the Challenges of Climate Change.

Yeb Saño, Climate Change Commissioner of the Philippines and a delegate to the 2013 Climate Change Conference in Warsaw speaks very movingly about the impact of Haiyan/Yolanda on his own family. Whether or not the super typhoon was caused by climate change it reminds us of the urgency of respecting God's creation. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31, RSVCE). We may have ratified our own doom, Mr Saño points out. But there still is room for us to act.

From looking at news reports on television I see some hope that  within two or three days essential aid, food, drinking water, shelter, medicine,communication systems, proper sanitation, the recovery and burial of all the dead, may avert an even greater disaster than what is there now. Good weather that will last for at least a few days is expected by Friday.

Last night President Aquino said that the estimate of 10,000 dead was too high and that the government believed the death toll was around 2,500. The final figure may be somewhere in between those two estimates. But each death is a tragedy for family and relatives.

When my friend Rhea Sarigumba posted the PAGASA update on Facebook she wrote, May God guide us with His loving care and protection.

May God give strength to all in the affected areas, victims, those bringing aid, administrators and media people. 

Will Yeb Saño's warning, We may have ratified our own doom, come true or will there be a place for Xycy, Xie Ann, Mabel, the children born just after the storm, and their contemporaries around the world at the table of life when they grow up?

Just now, 7:50pm Philippine time, I received news that the family of Reah and Rogel are all safe. Thanks be to God.