Prophetic words

OBy CTOBER, traditionally Peasant Month, is fast fading. If we were extra attentive, we would have seen many peasants and farm workers march to Manila to demonstrate for genuine agrarian reform, and against tyranny.

As we take stock of the demand of Filipino peasants, it is helpful to remember Pope Paul II’s first visit to the country in 1981, amid the fascist US-backed Marcos dictatorship.

Listen to the Pope minister to peasants in his visit to Bacolod:

“To all the sugarcane workers I say, as I say to all workers everywhere: never forget the great dignity that God has granted you, never let your work degrade you but remember always the mission that God has entrusted to you: to be, by the work of your hands, his collaborators in the continuation of the work of creation…

“(T)he worker is entitled to wages that give him a just share in the wealth he helps to produce, and that working conditions should be geared not to the ever increasing economic profit of the enterprise but to the inviolable dignity of man as an individual, as a provider for his family and as a builder of the society to which he belongs.”

The Pope reminded everyone: “There are in today’s world too many situations of injustice. Injustice reigns when some nations accumulate riches and live in abundance while other nations cannot offer the majority of people the basic necessities. Injustice reigns when within the same society some groups hold most of the wealth and power while large strata of the population cannot decently provide for the livelihood of their families even through long hours of backbreaking labor in factories or in the fields.”

He added: “Injustice reigns when the laws of economic growth and ever greater profit determine social relations, leaving in poverty and destitution those that have only the work of their hands to offer. Being aware of such situations, the Church will not hesitate to take up the cause of the poor and to become the voice of those who are not listened to when they speak up, not to demand charity, but to ask for justice.”

In that historic visit, the pope who we now know as St. John Paul the Great was on a roll, as he made his way across the country, speaking to a people burdened by tyranny.

At Tondo, he also ministered to the urban poor:

“Nobody has a keener sense of justice than the poor people who suffer the injustices that circumstances and human selfishness heap upon them. Finding strength in human solidarity, the poor by their very existence indicate the obligation of justice that confronts society and all who have power, whether economic, cultural or political. And so it is the same truth of the first Beatitude that indicates a path that every person must walk.

“It tells those that live in material poverty that their dignity, their human dignity, must be preserved, that their inviolable human rights must be cherished and protected. It also tells them that they themselves can achieve much if they pool their skills and talents, and especially their determination to be the artisans of their own progress and development.

36 years later, Tondo, Caloocan, and other areas where the urban poor struggle to survive are drenched in the blood of innocents. No thanks to a new Marcosian government that denies their basic dignity.

What should the professionals and the educated do amid what was happening under Marcos then, and under Duterte now?

In the same visit, John Paul II told them in a special audience at Araneta Coliseum:

“When things are going well, never shut yourselves off from society for the sake of making money, gaining power or acquiring more knowledge ; do not retreat into a position of privilege. May you put your talents to good use by serving ever more generously the needs and aspirations of all your brothers and sisters in the Philippines. I am thinking in particular of that great number of people who, as a result of different circumstances—injustice, poverty, the need to make a bare living, the lack of cultural stimulus—have been unable to attain the levels of university training and education that you have enjoyed.

“The complete development of the people of your country, and the satisfaction of their spiritual and material needs, call for much effort on your part; health-care for everyone; the defense of the sacred nature of human life and its promotion; the affirmation of the role of law in social and political relations if true order and real freedom are to be ensured ; the building of worthy housing, properly adapted to every family and every individual; the education of youth by teaching directed towards the search for truth and its affirmation; the balanced and fruitful management of natural resources in order to ensure that everyone has a fair share of their benefits: all these are matters that concern you directly.”

36 years later, the Pope’s statements vindicate the peasants and the urban poor, prick the conscience of the professionals, and indict the oligarchs and the old and new tyrants.

May the Santo Papa’s prophetic words guide us as we confront the lies and filth of the Tyrannical Tatay. Amen. Follow me on Twitter @tonyocruz and check out my blog tonyocruz.com