Jose Ma. Montelibano
There are some who have stood against powerful men and women for a number of years, oftentimes paying dearly for doing so. Those who speak against wrongdoing cannot but speak against wrongdoers every so often, and that is dangerous and expensive.
Reeling against what powerful wrongdoers dish back, I found myself wallowing in self-pity at times. I know I could have recapitulated several times if only clear and generous offers to do so were presented by life. But, as my fate would have it during my life as an advocate for change and an opinion writer, there were no serious temptations to corruption when I was in my weakest moments. When corruption did knock loudly on my doors, I simply and fortunately happened to be my most steadfast state.
Understanding life to be like a collection of moments good and bad, strong and weak, ugly and beautiful, I cannot but help being understanding (and often, kind) even to wrongdoers. They are also men and women with people who love them, and are hurt when others speak ill of them. I often wish I could resist urges to expose the evil that they do and inflict on others, as I know I have committed similar wrongs and have caused pain to some along the way.
The happy compromise has been, then, for me, to focus on wrongdoing itself rather than wrongdoers. And the higher option has been to focus on good and allow it to conquer evil in its own pre-destined way.
There will be instances when I do not favor the happy compromise for a more stinging rebuke, which I mostly reserve for hypocrites in robes. To me, the wolves in sheep's clothing have a special accountability which I would always like to remind them in this lifetime before the Lord does in the next. Religious leaders deserved special mention from a Christ who was especially offended by their hypocrisy, and I remind myself that they crucified Him for that. I, too, should expect crucifixion, not only from dirty politicians but from dirty religious as well. My deepest wish is not to be rescued from them, but that I will not turn out to be like them.
My stand against wrongdoing, especially the kind that preys on the weak, the sick and the innocent, is not one born of great courage but of great anger, just as my stand on hypocrisy by erring shepherds is not one born of great purity but of great revulsion. There are many behavioral scientists who would say that I could be projecting my great fears, the fear to be corrupt and the fear to be hypocritical. They could be right, and I just have to be vigilant against what I write and speak against so relentlessly.
The higher option of doing good and allowing it to defeat evil, though, is truly much more inspiring and restful to the soul. From my own exhaustion at the endless flailing against the windmill of corruption, I was blessed to find solace and renewed strength in the higher option of simply doing more and more good. Of course, when one is on the path of doing good and promoting the same path to others, there is less time, effort and opportunity to confront the thieves and liars in the bureaucracy of the State and the badly compromised among the hierarchy of the Church.
Comments from readers about how they are inspired, about how their hopes are rekindled, and about how their own resolve to reach out and ease the pain and suffering of the poor, to free them from the bondage of greed and poverty, add greatly to my commitment and capacity to pursue a personal mission of showing alternative and better ways to live out the divine purposes of our lives. If my pride or ego is stoked to momentary pleasure from the praise and gratitude of readers, I must admit that I do allow myself to enjoy the affirmation before moving on to the next opportunity to live out my mission.
In the midst of daily prayer and reflection, I realize clearly my ordinariness, that there are many who are greater, more brave and talented, more committed and pure. I realize, too, that there are the more fearful and cowardly, the more greedy and addicted to power, those more prone to form over substance, pomp over principle. As ordinary people with the capacity for good and evil, we have others who are greater, and lesser, than us. Comparison, then, is a deadly trap.
Steering away from life's landmines would require a determined focus on the value or principle at issue more than the personalities involved. Those who have to enter the arena of criticism, rebuke or censure must also cut across the walls of anger and despair that are erected or strengthened along the way. If we have to expose the corrupt and the hypocrites, we must also show with even more focus the honest and the true. We have to be living witnesses of the higher values, sterling examples of higher ethics, and place on the pedestal of public awareness others who display the same higher values and higher ethics.
As our people slide deeper into pain, from physical poverty and the absence of righteous leadership, there is greater need and urgency to raise principled Davids as available replacements for failed King Sauls who use power and position to cover the wrong they do. New ways must rise above the patterns of history, patterns of exploitation, patterns of corruption, and patterns of hypocrisy. Faith and patriotism might as well not be taught anymore in classrooms if our more publicly known leaders cannot be the models of virtue.
It is my firm belief that much right and much wrong had been taught by leaders of society. They have done so by their behavior more than by their pronouncements. Words are particularly tricky, more easily crafted than character and behavior.
Opinion makers, then, are especially placed for great honor, or great shame, because they can churn our more words than examples to readers who may never get to know them personally. Writers always write but few get written about. Because their own personal lives are often not exposed to public scrutiny, journalists may hide behind their readers' inability to know and judge their persons and integrity.
I strongly espouse righteous leadership. I must work hard, therefore, on my own righteousness. I strongly espouse helping the poor. I must work hard, therefore, on helping them as a personal commitment and daily advocacy. What I write about and promote must find me as its foremost activist. What I write about and condemn must find me its worst enemy. And on these criteria I submit myself before the judgment of my God and country.
--
"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves."
No comments:
Post a Comment