PROMISES

Homily for Thursday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time, 20 August 2020, Mt 22:1-14

Today’s Gospel parable is about people who do not keep their promises. They say yes to a serious invitation but do not show up. Some of them make all sorts of lame excuses, and others even get violent with the messengers when they are reminded that they had made a commitment.

I imagine how frustrating it can be when we deal with people whose word cannot be trusted or counted on. It must be even more frustrating when they swear to keep their word by the grave of their parents, or with a hand on top a Bible saying “So help me God” when asked, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

In the Sermon on the Mount, on his commentary on not bearing false witness, Jesus says, “Just say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no. Anything more is from the evil one.”

In the olden days, they needed the testimony of one or two witnesses to remind people that they had indeed given their word. If they deny the truth, it was the task of the witnesses to remind them about it. Such was the function of the “messengers” in the parable.

Last August 16, on the third anniversary of the killing of Khian de los Santos, I was suddenly reminded of the fact that of the countless EJK cases that we have documented in our diocese, only one case was successfully resolved with a conviction in court: the case of the killing of Khian De los Santos on the very day of our fiesta in 2017. Why? Because the witnesses were very credible—not the adults but the children. The adult witnesses mostly shut up as soon as they realize the possible consequences of making a testimony. Not so with children, because they have no sense of danger yet. Remember that witness who quoted Khian as saying to the police while he was being dragged to a dark alley, “Please, sir, I still have a test tomorrow.” That was just a child.

It is obvious in the Parable that the Messengers are an allusion to the prophets who came to remind the Israelite people of their commitment to their God through the Covenant that they had professed. Then it would make sense to you why they were maltreated or even killed. Please do not forget, we are dealing here not with a literal story but rather with a parable about people who hate the messengers because they hate being reminded about truth and justice, about the demand for fidelity and a sense of accountability, and that this has everything to do with the very essence of their faith in their God. It is also a good reminder to us who make our baptismal promises to renounce Satan and to be true to the Trinitarian God.

In the Hebrew language, the word for WORD is DABAR. It can mean thought (meaning the word that is in your mind); it can mean speech (or the word that is in your mouth and uttered by your tongue); and it can mean action (meaning, the word that that is expressed in deed or practice). Perhaps they refer to all three using the same word, DABAR, precisely to remind themselves of the importance of being a person of ONE WORD.

That seems to me to be a universal expression meant to describe people with INTEGRITY. In Tagalog we’d say, “May isang salita.” In Spanish, “tiene palabra de honor.” In English, “S/he is a person of one word.” Perhaps we call it INTEGRITY, from INTEGRITAS, a Latin word which means WHOLE, as against broken, divided, or fragmented—such as when speech contradicts thought, or action contradicts speech. People without integrity are the kind of people who lie through their teeth and are treacherous in their ways.

They say the serpent is a perfect image for the liar because it is an animal that has a forked tongue. There are indeed people who can tell a lie without batting an eyelash. They may even pass a lie-detector test because they won’t show any tinge of remorse at all about telling an untruth. And worse, is, when they are caught lying or untrue to their own word, they may even have the gall to say, “At naniwala ka namang gunggong ka. You’re so gullible; too bad for you, you deserve your misery.” Or their spokespersons or spin masters would do the justifying for them by saying, “Come on, it was only meant as a joke.”

There is only one saving grace for people who lie and are caught flatfooted—to have the humility to own up to their action and to express remorse by begging for forgiveness and by being ready to face the consequences of their action. It is the only way to restore one’s integrity and credibility as a person. In ancient Japan, in order to salvage whatever remained of their integrity after a loss of face, some people committed HARAKIRI. It is of course tragic; but isn’t it more tragic when people do not even care anymore about integrity as a value?

If you have been following these online Masses since the start of the pandemic, you would probably remember that I shared a homily several months ago now about the Panatang Makabayan. I remember a priest telling me when he was still in elementary, the first time they were taught to recite the PANATANG MAKABAYAN, the teacher played it from a vinyl record played on a turn table. Apparently, the record player had become defective and got stuck, right at that part that says, “sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino sa isip, sa salita…sa salita…sa salita…sa salita.”

We become like broken records when we get stuck on words and never get to put them into action. This is one of the worst tragedies that can happen to us: when thought and word cannot take flesh in action, when we make promises we cannot keep, when we make commitments and get used to breaking them, when we get used to eating our words.

Even St. Paul at one point in his life almost despaired when he admitted his inability to keep his promises. He ends up asking in Romans 7:24-25, “Wetched man that I am, who can save me from my wretched self.” And his answer, is, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.“ I wonder if you feel like Paul sometimes, knowing that our faith is founded on vows that we promised to keep: baptismal promises, marital promises, vocation promises, etc.

In today’s first reading, Ezekiel makes a prophecy that the time is coming when people will learn to be true to their word because God will write his law, no longer on stone tablets, but in their hearts. It is the prophecy that is fulfilled through the coming of the Holy Spirit who awakens in our hearts the spirit of him who alone remained faithful and true until the very end.

Robert Frost has a piece of poetry that has been interpreted in many ways. It is entitled, STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING. Somehow I feel consoled when I imagine the poem being said by Jesus himself, especially the final verse that says, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”